Heart of the Serpent
by sincerelysophie
Summary: Lyra Black was raised by her godmother, Andromeda Tonks, after the First Wizarding War killed her mother, Marlene McKinnon, and incarcerated her father, Sirius Black. When Sirius escapes Azkaban, Lyra is forced to face the reality that has been hidden from her. Her once serene, happy family life gets thrown on its head, and she finds an unlikely ally in the boy-who-lived.
1. Prologue

**Prologue**

Lyra Cassiopeia Black had been looking forward to going to Hogwarts ever since she had heard her older cousin Dora talk about her adventures there. She lived with Dora's parents, Andromeda and Ted, and had been raised by them for as long as she could remember... But this year, this was _her_ year. Lyra was finally going to Hogwarts. She'd gotten her letter, and she had gotten her wand, her very own wand. Just before she and her godmother, Andromeda, turned to leave Ollivander's the bell of the door chimed the arrival of a new customer.

"Hello, Andromeda," A cool, female voice said from behind Lyra and her godmother.

"Narcissa," Andromeda said equally as cool. "What a... surprise. I suppose Draco's just turned eleven as well, then?"

"Yes, this June just past," Lyra turned to face the woman who had ice blonde hair with a streak of black through it. She bore a vague resemblance to Lyra's godmother, Andromeda. It was something in the shape of their noses and the way their jaws curved just so, yet they held themselves differently. There was a certain sharpness to this woman that there wasn't in Andromeda. The strange, stiff woman, Narcissa, she assumed, turned to face her. "And is this who I think it is?"

"If Lyra Black is who you think I am," Lyra said cautiously. "Then yes." Lyra felt her godmother's hand clap on her right shoulder and firmly take hold. She turned her pale grey-blue eyes to face her and her eyebrows raised curiously at the stiff line into which Andromeda's lips had pressed.

"Lyra Black," Narcissa smiled, or sneered. Lyra found it was difficult to tell with such harsh features as this woman had. "Well... Daddy would just _die_ knowing that you'd adopted another blood traitor into your family."

Lyra turned her head and her blonde braid fell from the shoulder over which it had been draped. She blinked at Narcissa and felt goose bumps prickle against the back of her neck. She never heard terms like 'blood traitor' around their dinner table. Not once.

"It's a good thing _daddy_ is dead already, then," Andromeda tried her hardest to sound civil in front of Lyra. "C'mon, Lyra, darling, let's go get you your robes."

"What a splended idea, 'Dromeda," Narcissa cooed. "Maybe she'll be in Hufflepuff, just like your _real _daughter was," She said quietly as Andromeda passed her. Lyra was practically shoved out of the open door, but could vaguely make out what Andromeda was saying to the woman in Mr. Ollivander's shop as she hovered inside the door.

"I promise you, Cissy... Ever suggest that Lyra is not... I'll have your _... on a platter!_"

The door opened once more, and Lyra pretended not to be listening. She beamed up at her godmother.

"Robes next?" Lyra asked innocently. Andromeda straightened out her eggplant purple robes and took a deep breath.

"Yes, robes sounds like the best plan," Andromeda forced a smile. "Simple black robes for Hogwarts."

As they entered Madam Malkin's, Andromeda's heart stopped as she stared at the sleek, blonde-haired boy and messy, black-haired boy with glasses and a lightning scar on his forehead talking.

"On second thought, should we look at a kitten to take with you to Hogwarts?" Andromeda said quickly as she turned Lyra around.

"Was that-"

"Quickly, Lyra, don't you want to see all the kittens?"

"You mean it? I can finally have one!"

It was easy, in a world that was so distant from war, to forget the casualties. It was easy for Andromeda to pretend that her two girls, Nymphadora and Lyra, were so separate from the world that had disappeared ten years ago. For ten years, she and Ted could act as though everything was perfectly normal. Harry Potter had no affect on their world. How could she have forgotten that he was the same age as Lyra? Did he know who Lyra was? Did he have any idea? She hoped not.

* * *

Nymphadora Tonks, Dora to her parents, remembered the day she decided she was going to be an auror very well. She was 10-years-old, and had decided her hair was going to be the colour of freshly brewed butterbeer, and that her skin would be a the colour of coffee with creamer in it. She was eating toast with raspberry jam, dipped in earl grey tea while her mother hummed a song of victory. The war was over. Voldemort had been defeated.

It was in that moment that the doorbell rang, and Dora watched as her mother put down her dish cloth and walked towards the door. She was wearing a forest green skirt and a purple cashmere sweater. Dora loved that sweater because it was soft against her cheek when her mother held her. As soon as the door opened, Dora heard the sounds of two gruff voices at the doorway, and her mother called upstairs to her dad.

"_Ted!_"

It wasn't often that people were at the door and required both of her parents, so naturally she peaked her head around the corner and saw two aurors, one with dried blood still on his chin and a bandage on his crooked nose who looked older than both of her parents combined, but also stronger. The other had stitches down his cheek and had skin the colour of chocolate. They seemed so regal, powerful, and important as they stood in the doorway. One of them had his arms wrapped around a squirming toddler with blonde hair. The baby was crying and pulling on the ends of the elder auror's hair.

Dora remembered watching the hushed voices of her parents as her mother said loudly, "Well, there's _no_ question, Alastor. Of course, we'll have her."

She remembered her mother opening her arms out to the crying child who whimpered slightly as she buried her face into the soft purple cashmere. That was the day Dora received a little sister, who was really a cousin of some sorts from one of her mother's family members that never visited. It was the day she learned that wizards and witches alike could be truly evil enough to leave not one but two children orphaned at the end of a terrible war. As she watched the two battered men leave the front doorstep, Dora wanted to help fight against dark magic.

Now, nearly ten years later, as Tonks, with her long, curly and electric blue hair pulled into a pony tail, made her way up the familiar porch steps of her parents' home, the door swung open in front of her. Out hopped a bouncing, slender blonde girl with two braids hanging down each shoulder and a smile wider than she'd ever seen it. She was holding a wand that looked to be the same length as her forearm.

"English Oak, Dragon Heartstring core, teeeeen and a half inches," the young witch said proudly.

"What kind of dragon heart?" Tonks beamed down at her as she carefully charmed the wand away from the young girl before she could accidentally hex anyone.

"Don't go waving that around before Flitwick's taught you anything useful, Lyra!" Tonks heard her mother calling from the house.

"Mr. Ollivander said it was from a Hungarian Horntail," the girl, Lyra, said her smile spreading across her cheeks. "He said it'll produce the most flamboyant magic."

"And also the most flammable if you're not careful," Tonks winked as she ruffled the girl's soft, straight blonde hair. "Hiya mum! Dad's not home yet?" Tonks put her hand on Lyra's shoulder and lead her into the house.

"No, not yet, love," Andromeda Tonks with her long, curly black hair streaked with cobwebs, wiped her hands on her apron and smiled affectionately at her daughter. "Lyra, be a darling and set the table..."

"Only because you asked _so_ nicely," Lyra said cheekily. Andromeda raised an eyebrow, recognizing exactly where her sassiness had come from, "D'you know who I saw today, Dora?"

"Who'd you see, Ly?" Tonks asked as she hugged her mother and kissed her cheek. She turned and smiled at the eleven-year-old in the adjoining dining room.

"I saw my _other_ cousin," Lyra retorted. "The blonde one. The one who goes on about _blood_ purity like the rest of those no-good Blacks."

"He's a _Malfoy_, love," Andromeda said with a small smile creeping on her lips. "You know, you're the last surviving Black, so maybe they'll become a little bit better with you to carry on the torch."

"Even still," Lyra shrugged. "I'm related to him. _But_ he's not the important part."

"No?" Tonks turned to face her mother with a bemused expression on her face. Diagon Alley had never been so lively when she shopped for her school supplies.

"I got a cat!" Lyra said excitedly. "Her name is Calypso, and she's probably still hiding under my bed right now, but-"

As Lyra yammered away, Andromeda smiled weakly at her eldest daughter. Tonks entered the kitchen and squeezed her mother's hand as she passed to fill a pitcher with water for the table.

"You never let me get a cat," Tonks teased. Andromeda looked at her and shrugged her shoulders.

"You never had to be distracted away from Harry Potter before," She replied quietly. Tonks raised her eyebrows and made a face.

"You and dad'll have to tell her one day."

"Yes," Andromeda sighed. "Just not today... I couldn't today..." The two of them looked over the kitchen counter to where Lyra was still talking to no one in particular about how excited she was to finally go to Hogwarts castle, and how she didn't care what house she was sorted into so long as she was near the lake. Tonks knew that the secret of Lyra's biological father had been a well-guarded secret, but now Lyra was eleven and soon enough the secret of the blood that coursed through her veins would come back to haunt them.

* * *

**A/N: Soooo, I came up with this story a little while ago. The title will become more obvious to the connection later. This isn't going to be a Harry x OC story. I'll post the first chapter in a little bit... The main story starts in Prisoner of Azkaban, so I'll be flashing back to important moments of Years one and two, but eh... Hope you enjoyed this. Let me know if you'd be interested in more! Cheers! Sophie**


	2. Nova Baby

**A/N: Wow! Than****ks for following and reviewing! I'm glad people like this! I've decided to start in Prisoner of Azkaban with flashbacks to earlier years interspersed. Enjoy!**

* * *

_**Hogwarts' Castle, September 1st, 1991**_

_Minerva McGonnagall's heart nearly stopped in her chest when she glanced over the list of first years for the sorting ceremony. Two surnames caught her eye: Black and Potter. How very much like the originals to have children of the same age, she thought bitterly. She only hoped that these two would be easier to deal with than the last set had been. As she placed the Sorting Hat on the stool in front of the Great Hall, she began calling names. _

"_Abbott, Hannah!" McGonnagall called out. A trembling, pink-faced girl with pigtails went and sat on the stool. She placed the hat on her head and it called out almost immediately._

"_HUFFLEPUFF!" _

"_Black, Lyra!" She watched as the spitting image of an eleven year old Marlene McKinnon waltzed up to the front with the confidence a young Master Black had once had. Her heart clenched. Did the girl know? Or was she as clueless to her past as the young Potter boy? She placed the hat on her head and expected the dainty blonde to join her house. Instead, the hat sat still for a moment. After a ten second pause, the hat declared, "SLYTHERIN!"_

_McGonnagall looked at the young girl's face. Her smile faltered slightly, but she stood up and almost skipped over to the cheering silver and green table. Perhaps she wouldn't have to worry about Black and Potter at all... Perhaps they'd never become acquaintances and would avoid each other completely..._

* * *

_**Hogwarts' Castle, December 10th, 1991**_

"_MISTER POTTER! MISS BLACK!" Professor McGonnagall rushed over to where the two twelve year olds were wrestling each other in the back courtyard, which was covered in snow, while a group of Slytherin students egged them on. She waved her wand and the two students flew off of each other._

"_TAKE IT BACK!" Lyra shrieked as she writhed against whatever charm was holding her back. "TAKE IT BACK, YOU STUPID LIAR!"_

"_DON'T CALL ME STUPID, YOU PUREBLOOD HYPOCRITE!" Harry shouted back. "AT LEAST I'M NOT RELATED TO MALFOY!"_

"_AT LEAST-" Lyra started to counter back. _

"_Enough!" McGonnagall cut them off. "The both of you. Twenty points from both Gryffindor AND Slytherin. Miss Black, I'll be speaking to the head of Slytherin house about this..." _

_Minerva struggled to contain her smile as she sentenced them both to detention for a week. As the two sulked and scowled at one another the entire way to the Trophy Room, Minerva recalled watching their fathers gleefully serve detention together. It was strange to think that a very different pair of Potter and Black had once been punished by being kept away from one another. Her heart ached as she remembered exactly what the other Black had done to Potter._

* * *

_**Platform 9 and 3/4, September 1st, 1993**_

_Sirius Black's daughter._ Lyra had to repeat that internally a few times as she stared at the wanted poster on Platform 9 and 3/4. _I'm his daughter. I'm in Slytherin, I'm related to that git Malfoy... And even better, I'm a mass murderer's daughter._

"All right, Ly?" Ted Tonks wrapped his arm around her shoulder and steered her away. His sandy blonde hair was tousled from apparating to the platform. He smiled warmly at his goddaughter.

"I've definitely been better," Lyra muttered. She looked up at Ted. He was the man who had raised her as his own, had kissed her scraped knees better, and argued bitterly with anyone about why her blood didn't make her any less his daughter than Nymphadora...

"Right," Ted said. He squeezed her towards his chest. "You aren't still cross we didn't tell you, are you?"

She'd been cross all summer, but looking at Ted's earnest smile, she couldn't tell him that. She just smiled weakly and shook her head. Andromeda rushed back from the large luggage drop off carrying Calypso in her carrier. Nymphadora followed her closely. She'd made her hair look identical to Lyra's for seeing her off. She'd done that since she was in school, because it made her feel better to look at least sort of similar to Tonks.

"Remember what I told you when you were sorted into Slytherin house?" Ted kissed the top of her head.

"'Your house doesn't define you. The choices you make within your house does,'" Lyra repeated monotonously.

"I was a Slytherin! Remember that we love you, no matter what," Andromeda beamed at her. She pulled her into a hug and whispered in her ear, "You're my girl, Lyra Cassiopeia. Don't you forget that."

"Stay out of trouble, kid," Dora grinned. She ruffled Lyra's hair and pulled her into a warm hug. "Don't go looking for any either... And if there are any Black sightings-"

"I'll send an owl, straight away," Lyra assured them all. "See you at Christmas?"

"See you at Christmas," The three of them repeated back to her. Andromeda handed Lyra the cat carrier and as she stepped onto the train, she blew a kiss.

* * *

_**The Restricted Section, December 25th, 1991**_

_Lyra sat cross-legged sandwiched in between two bookshelves with a muggle flashlight that Ted had given her between her teeth. She was reading an old biography about Salazar Slytherin. It was her first Christmas away from home, because Andromeda and Ted had won a vacation and Dora was in the middle of the toughest part of her auror training: stealth training. She didn't mind terribly, however, because as there were so few people around she could sneak into the parts of the Castle where she wasn't normally allowed... Like the restricted section. Suddenly, she heard the sound of footsteps. Lyra clicked off her flashlight and stowed it in her robe pocket. She peaked her head around the corner of a shelf and clapped her hand over her mouth._

_There was a floating hand and a lantern coming down the aisle. Her blue eyes widened considerably as the hand suddenly became attached to Harry Potter. _Of course_, she thought._ Of course someone gave him an invisibility cloak._ She quietly closed her book, deciding she didn't much like the founder of her house and slid it back onto a shelf as silently as she could. Harry hadn't noticed her yet. He put the lantern down on a ledge and Lyra watched as he took a book off the shelf. He went to open it, when suddenly she recognized the book. Ted had a copy for a party trick back home._

"_No, wait!" Lyra gasped as she ran over to him. Harry, startled that she was there, knocked over his lantern and dropped the book. It opened up on the floor and let out a blood curdling scream. _

"_What are you doing here?" Harry shouted as the pair of them struggled to close the book and hear over the ringing had developed over the piercing note._

"_Reading, now, shut up!" Lyra clapped her hands over his mouth. They heard footsteps. Exchanging glances, Harry grabbed his invisibility cloak and placed it over the both of them. "How do you have one of these?" She whispered._

"_You shut up," Harry hissed. The pair of them silently made their way back towards the door. As soon as they saw Filch, they stood rooted to their spot and pressed themselves against the bookshelf. Neither of them minded that they had to stand in such close proximity as Filch walked past. The pair of them, as soon as he was around the corner inspecting the broken lantern, bolted. Suddenly, they realized that they were lost as they stood in front of a suit of armour._

"_Nice going, Potter," Lyra elbowed him. He shot her a look under the cloak. That's when they heard voices. Specifically, the voices of Snape and FIlch. The two men were getting closer and closer to the eleven year olds. Lyra looked around frantically, she nudged Harry again and pointed to a door that was ajar. The pair of them sprinted together and quietly shut the door behind them. As soon as the cloak was off they put as much distance between themselves as possible. _

"_So you were really just _reading_ in the restricted section?" Harry said skeptically. Neither of them had noticed the ornate mirror in the empty, dusty room in which they were hiding._

"_Yeah, that's what normal wizards do in a library, Potter," Lyra snapped. "What were you doing?"_

"_Why were you reading so late?" Harry ignored her question. _

"_Oh, I don't know," Lyra rolled her eyes. "Has Madame Pince ever let _you_ into the restricted section during the day?" Harry nodded appreciatively of the fact, and Lyra continued, "Besides, I'm not the only one out late in the library. What were you looking for?"_

"_Information on-" Harry thought better of himself, "Information." _

"_Information on information," Lyra snorted. "Are all Gryffindors this articulate?" _

"_Whatever," Harry grumbled. He then turned around and Lyra followed his line of sight to a large, ornate mirror with a carving on the top. "Whoa..." _

_The pair of them walked over to the mirror. Lyra stared at it for a long time. In the reflection she saw Harry and herself, but then a group of people in the background turned and smiled at them. Ted and Andromeda walked over to her with a slender, but curvy blonde woman and a tall, lithe black-haired man with a crooked smile. She glanced over at Harry's reflection and noticed a man who looked like an older version of Harry himself winking at the black-haired man in front of her. Her heart started pounding._

"_Dad?" Lyra whispered as she stared at the tall man. He simply grinned at her. "Oh Merlin... Ted... 'Dromeda.. These are my birth parents?" _

"_Mum?" Harry looked at the crying redhead in front of him. "Dad?" He glanced over at Lyra who had pressed one of her hands against the glass and looked paler than she normally did. Was she seeing what he was seeing? Why did that make her emotional? As far as he knew, she'd lived with two parents who loved her... He watched as a tear slipped down her cheek. "Are you crying Black?"_

"_No," She said defiantly. "...Maybe," She looked back at the blonde woman who had hugged Andromeda before walking to the forefront. She was pressing her hands against the glass because this was the closes she had been to her mother before. It wasn't that Andromeda hadn't been a good mother figure, it was just that she'd also made sure to tell her plenty about the kind of woman her mother was: brave, resilient, strong, kind... None of these things had anything to do with Slytherin house. Lyra had never felt more distant from the memory of her parents than she did watching them grin at her in the mirror. Lyra forced herself to look over at Harry. He looked equally as pale and shocked. _

"_D'you think that this is a portal to the other side?" Harry whispered as though he was in a chapel._

"_Those don't exist," Lyra said. "Not even in the wizarding world."_

_The pair of them sat in silence for a long while, staring at the mirror. It was the kindest they'd been to each other in the four months that they'd known each other. Harry shifted uncomfortably, thinking how much he'd rather be sharing this experience with Ron, his _real_ friend._

"_I'll walk you back to the Slytherin common room," Harry said. He looked at his parents and family in the reflection. _

"_I don't want to go," Lyra said weakly. "They all look so happy."_

"_Snape and Filch are gone, if we leave under the cloak now, maybe he won't notice you've left the dormitory," Harry said diplomatically. Reluctantly, Lyra got up from her seat where she'd been watching her parents interact with Ted and Andromeda as though they were all one big happy family. Lyra missed them sorely, Ted and Andy, but she knew she'd see them again soon... Her birth parents however... She might never see them again. "C'mon, Black. Let's go. I don't want to have to serve detention with you."_

"_Fine," Lyra resigned. She didn't want to feel the wrath of the head of her house, so she let Harry escort her back to the Slytherin house entrance. She looked over at him and said, "Let's never talk about this again, yeah?"_

"_Fair enough," Harry said. _

"_We're still not friends," Lyra insisted. _

"_I'd never be friends with a pureblood Slytherin like you," Harry said with the corners of his mouth tugging upwards._

"_And I'd never be friends with a reckless Gryffindor like you, Potter," Lyra shrugged her shoulders. _

_That would be the closest thing to a civil conversation the pair of them would have for two years._

* * *

_**The Hogwarts Express, September 1st, 1993**_

As Lyra walked through the corridor, she was greeted by an overexcited Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis. Calypso started meowing loudly as they approached. The pair of them dragged her into a compartment with Blaise Zabini, with whom Lyra was never close but Daphne seemed to adore.

"Hello Lyra," Blaise said formally, as though they hadn't spent two years in each other's presence. "Trying out for Quidditch again this year?"

"Of course," Lyra replied. "I'm the best chaser Slytherin's had in years."

"That's right, you are," Daphne nudged her. "Mum got me a new broom this summer. A firebolt. Fastest there is!"

"I'll have to struggle to catch up with you then," Lyra grinned as Daphne took Calypso out of her case and started to cuddle with her. Calypso squirmed around in her arms. Her ears reached back and she looked over at Lyra with a face that said, _Every year you let this crazy person pretend I like her, and every year I scratch her to oblivion._

"Hmm," Blaise turned and looked out the window. "Tracey, what do you think about this Sirius Black fellow?"

"You mean convict-on-the-run, Sirius Black?" Tracy laughed. "Dunno. Seems like a bit of a nutter... Mind, he did escape Azkaban. What do you know about him, Lyra?"

"Me?" Lyra said, her heart starting to beat faster and faster in her chest. "Oh, er... Not too much. Just that he's a relative of mine."

"Oh yes," Blaise smiled. "That's right, he would be. How closely related?" The glint in his eye as he asked let Lyra know that he already knew the answer.

"No idea," she lied through her teeth. "But all purebloods are related, so you're probably his distant cousin as well."

Calypso leapt from Daphne's arms into Lyra's lap and curled up into a ball there.

"At least he was fighting for a decent cause," Blaise waved his hand dismissively. Tracey stiffened, she looked at Lyra who shook her head. Tracey Davis was a halfblood. It was one of the reasons she and Lyra had become friends. In first year, Draco was speaking poorly about muggleborns and the pair of them had jumped down his throat. Ted was a muggleborn, and Tracey's father was a muggle.

"What, like your parents did?" Daphne teased. "Not sure anyone would be brave enough to admit _that_ these days. Those were dark times, Blaise. And he killed twelve innocent people as well as his best mate."

"I just think that You-Know-Who wasn't too far off," Blaise shrugged. "His methods were... _questionable_, but he wasn't _wrong_, per se."

"Oh, sod off," Tracey tossed her sweater over at him as she spread out over her side of the compartment. She reached her hand over into Lyra's lap and pet Calypso's bunny-soft head. The cream-and-beige cat purred. "I mean, I'm not saying that some witches and wizards aren't _better_ than others, I just think it's daft to use blood as a grounds for that, right Lyra?"

"Right," Lyra agreed. She swallowed, feeling Blaise's eyes burning into her. He knew. He had to know. The more they talked about blood purity, the more uncomfortable she became. He wouldn't stop staring at her. Andromeda's voice echoed in her head, _'You're my girl, Lyra Cassiopeia.'_ But she wasn't. She wasn't Andromeda's girl. She was Sirius Black's daughter. She was the daughter of a mass murderer, a former Death Eater, who had no right to defend halfbloods or muggleborns or anyone. She felt like she might pass out.

"You alright, Ly?" Daphne asked from beside Blaise. "You look a bit paler than usual..."

"Oh, I'm fine..." Lyra smiled weakly. It didn't reach her eyes and she laughed hollowly for effect. "Just a bit tired. Dora kept me up all night to tell me about auror training."

"How's that going?" Tracey asked, though Lyra knew none of them cared to hear her answer.

"Good," Lyra smiled. "She likes it."

"My cousin says she's a bit clumsy," Blaise shrugged. "She probably won't pass the final exam if she can't be stealth."

"What does your cousin know?" Tracey rolled her eyes. Daphne shot both Lyra and Tracey looks of disdain. Blaise was the most popular boy that any of them knew. Daphne and Blaise had grown up together. It was almost as though Lyra and Tracey were constant tests on whether or not he'd continue to spend time with them at all. Lyra didn't care. Not really.

* * *

_**Professor Snape's Office, January 20th, 1993**_

_"My office is closed to students at this hour, Miss Black," Snape said monotonously as a familiar blonde head peaked its way in. _

_"But Professor," She started to say. _

"_Have you seen any Slytherins behaving in a less than savory manner?"_

_"No, but—"_

_"Any Gryffindors? Ravenclaws? Hufflepuffs?"_

_"No! But I—"_

"_Are you fatally injured?"_

_"No, but Prof—"_

_"Is any other Slytherin fatally injured?" "No, we're all fine, but—" "Is this about Potter, Weasley, Granger or any combination of the three?"_

_"No!" "Longbottom then?" "This hasn't got anything to do with any of them, can you let me—"_

_"Then I see no reason for you to be disturbing me outside of office hours, Miss Black," Snape closed his notebook and looked up at her. She looked exactly like Marlene had when angry, but the shape of her eyes and nose gave way to something distinctly Black. _

_Lyra let out a frustrated groan at being dismissed by the professor again. She turned to walk back out of his office and then paused._

"_Why do you hate me?" She asked. "I'm good at potions. Some might say brilliant, though probably not you. You're my favourite teacher even though you're ridiculously unfair when it comes to grading. I just- I don't get it. I'm no where near as annoying as Granger or as petulant as Potter, so what is it? What have i done?"_

"_I am a professor, Miss Black, I do not need to explain myself to a second year," Professor Snape repeated. He looked down his long hooked nose at the girl. _

"_Are you saying that I'm worse than Draco Malfoy?" Lyra huffed. "I'm loads better than he is in your class. I actually pay attention!"_

"_For a Slytherin, Miss Black, you certainly lack self-preservation," Professor Snape stood up from his desk and walked over to where she stood. Grabbing her by the collar, he started to walk her down the hall. "You are _not_ 'loads' better at anything. You're a show off, just like your father. You are as petulant as Potter and as annoying as Granger, only worse because you are in. My. House. Now I suggest," He let go of her collar as they approached the entrance to the Slytherin common room, "That you head to your dormitory and never disturb me outside of class hours again, or I'll be forced to deduct points from my house... And if there is one thing I detest more than teaching-" He stopped mid-sentence as he saw the tears well in her pale blue eyes. _

"_So you really do hate me," She said quietly._

_Half of Severus Snape thought the best thing to do was to ignore her. If he simply repeated that she should leave, he'd never have to look at her again. After all, she was as much Black as Harry Potter was Potter. The only difference was that she didn't have any redemption in her matriarchal line. Marlene McKinnon was not Lily Evans._

_The other half of Severus saw a child who was good at a class everyone hated, stuck in a house with people who were obsessed with blood purity in a passive aggressive way that clearly bothered her, and one who was picked on by Gryffindors. _

_How could he ignore a child who was so much like he was in school?_

"_If there's one thing I detest more than teaching you, it's deducting points from my own house," He finished with half as much enthusiasm as he had before. _

"_I'm sorry, Professor," She mumbled, bowing her blonde head. She didn't look much like Sirius Black at this angle. Sirius Black never apologized for attempting to feed him to the wolves. _

"_It's quite alright, Miss Black," Snape said before he could think better of himself. She turned to skulk down the steps to the Common Room. Severus felt like kicking himself as he said, "If you ever feel the need to chat again, please, just come during my open office hours."_

_Her blonde hair flipped around and her smile was wider than he'd ever seen it._

_He shouldn't have said that. He really shouldn't have said that._

* * *

_**Hogwarts Express, September 1st, 1993**_

"Calypso!" Lyra called out as her tiny cat darted out of the compartment as soon as Crabbe, Goyle and Malfoy stood leering at them from the door. "Thanks, _Draco_, now I have to go bloody chase after her."

"Well, try not to run into your daddy on the way," Draco teased maliciously. Lyra's shoulders stiffened as he stood with a satisfied grin on his face. Tracey and Daphne exchanged looks behind her. "I hear he likes to murder those who stand between him and escape. D'you take after him, Lyra?"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Lyra whispered.

"What's he talking about?" Daphne asked. "Ly? What does he mean by your dad?" Draco's pale eyebrow arched with curiosity.

"Oh ho," Draco chuckled. "She hasn't _told_ you?" Blaise cocked his head to the side as he studied Lyra as she tried to push past Malfoy.

"Let me through," Lyra grumbled. "I've got to go get my cat before she-"

"Hasn't told us what?" Tracey said. "Lyra, what's he on about?" Lyra deflated. She felt cold all over.

"About Sirius Black? She hasn't told you that _he's_ her father?" Draco said innocently. "Well, well, Lyra... That's _quite_ curious, isn't it? Can't trust your friends with that information?"

His pale eyes bore holes into her skin. The ice in her veins was replaced with fire. She felt angry. Her skin started to prickle with a blush as she violently shoved him out of her way. She swore at him under her breath as she started to run down the hallway, pushing past anyone that stood in her way. Calypso darted into the last compartment door. As she calmed herself down, she clenched her eyes closed and walked inside.

"Sorry, my cat just-" Lyra started to say quickly. Just then, the train came to a screeching halt. She fell down and landed on two people: Ron Weasley and Harry Potter. "Of _course_," She grumbled.

"Is this your cat?" Hermione Granger said cooly from the other side. Lyra picked herself up and straightened herself out. She glanced at Hermione who had two cats on her lap, one mangy looking orange cat with a pressed in face, and one pretty, delicate cat with a tiny nose and huge ears; Calypso.

"Yes," Lyra said equally as cool. "I'm so sorry she's disturbed you..."

"She's quite sweet, actually," Hermione said. Lyra reached down and picked up Calypso, but as soon as the cat was comfortably in her arms, all of the lanterns went out and they were plunged into complete darkness.

"What's going on?" Weasley said.

"Ouch!" Lyra gasped as she felt a sharp pain in her toes. "That was my foot!" Calypso hissed and leapt out of her arms running down. "Oh, great! Calypso-"

"D'you think we've broken down?"

There was a squeaking sound. Lyra watched as a figure appeared to be cleaning some condensation off the window and peering out.

"There's something moving out there," Weasley's voice said again, "I think someone's coming aboard."

The compartment door swung open, Calypso hissed in distaste and yelped in pain as someone tripped over her and knocked Lyra to the floor.

"Sorry- Ouch- Er- Sorry, who is this?"

A hand pressed itself against Lyra's recently blossomed chest and a smack resonated around the compartment.

"_Not_ the floor, Longbottom!" Lyra growled as she shoved him off of her and scrambled to find a seat.

"Hullo, Neville," Harry said as he felt around and pulled Neville onto the seat beside him.

"Harry? Is that you? What's happening?"

"Haven't the foggiest," Harry replied. Hermione's voice came from right beside Lyra, "I'm going to go ask the driver what's going on..." Lyra felt the air suddenly cool from beside her. The door slid open and then there was another two thuds.

"Who's that?" "Who's_ that?_" "Ginny?" "Hermione?" Lyra rolled her eyes. _Gryffindors_.

"I was looking for Ron-" "Come sit down!" "Not here, I'm here!" "Ouch!"

"_Quiet!_" A hoarse voice said suddenly out of the darkness on Lyra's other side. She couldn't remember who was there, but he sounded older than any of them. There was a soft, crackling noise and then Lyra looked over to where a handful of flames illuminated a tired, grey face with wary, alert eyes.

"Stay where you are," The man said. He slowly got to his feet and held out the fire in his hands. Lyra's eyes followed him. The door slid slowly open before he could reach it. Lyra's heart pounded so heavily in her chest that she thought she might explode. Standing in the doorway, with the dancing light of flames on a black cloak, was a dark figure with a face concealed entirely by a cloak.

Then it felt cold... Colder than it should have. Lyra felt as though someone had just stuck her in a freezer. Her breath came out in clouds. Out of no where, a nagging voice started to fill her head, '_Nobody wants you really, Lyra... You're just as bad as he is...' _She watched in horror, the cloaked figure head right to Harry. _Oh my god, oh my god_. She watched as Harry suddenly went limp, and then his eyes rolled back. He was twitching uncontrollably. _Oh my god._ Lyra thought, _It's my fault. _She didn't know how, but she suddenly felt hit with a weight of guilt. Her father was responsible for the death of his parents, so of course she would end up responsible for _his_ death.

"None of us is hiding Sirius Black," The man said to the creature that hung over Harry. "Go."

But it didn't move... Harry started to convulse even more. He slipped off his chair and twitched on the ground. '_He's dying, Lyra... He's dying and there's nothing you can do. He'll die and it'll be all your fault. No one will love you then... Not even Ted and Andromeda._' She wanted to scream at the voice to shut up, but she didn't have the strength to. She sat, petrified and watched as Harry went limp.

The older man took out his wand and said something Lyra couldn't quite make out. A silvery wisp came out of his wand and chased the creature out of the room.

As soon as the Dementor was out, she saw the Professor run a hand over his face. The lights flicked back on. Lyra sat frozen, her entire body shaking. The professor turned and stared at her for a moment. A flash of recognition in his eyes sparked as he studied her face. Did _he_ know? Lyra wondered in her mind. She turned her head away from him, her blonde hair shielding herself from the reality that it was likely _everyone_ knew.

"Is Harry alright?" Hermione asked frantically as she rushed to her friend's side. Lyra sat, frozen, beside Ginny and Neville. No one was speaking to her. They all just fussed over Harry and made sure he was okay. The professor ushered Neville and Ginny out of his way. They moved as Hermione smacked Harry until he woke up. The professor pulled out a large bar of chocolate and began breaking it into pieces. He offered a chunk to Lyra who had tried to press herself further into the wall.

"Here, Lyra," The professor said softly. Lyra's head jerked around. She stared at him in shock. She hadn't introduced herself to him.

"Who are you?" Lyra whispered.

"I'm Professor Lupin," He smiled weakly. He pat her on the shoulder, but she wasn't comforted. A tear slid down her cheek. He then turned and offered a large chunk of chocolate to Harry who was awake now, and distributed the rest of it equally among the rest of the students. "Eat it. It'll help."

"What was that thing?" Harry asked Lupin.

"A dementor," Lupin said. "One of the dementors of Azkaban. Looking Sirius Black."

"Well, I'm not Sirius Black," Harry said. "I'm not even a Black," all eyes fell on Lyra. Her cheeks went red and she swallowed wiping tears away from her cheeks.

"Eat," Lupin gestured to the chocolate in each of their hands. "It truly will help." He glanced over at Lyra who looked very out of place with the students around her.

"I should go," Lyra muttered. "I have to find my cat and change into my robes and-"

"I'll walk with you," Lupin said. The pair of them left the compartment.

"How do you know my name?" Lyra asked as soon as they were out of the Gryffindor's earshots.

"I just assumed. You look a lot like your mother, you know," Lupin replied with a hint of pain creeping into his words as it stabbed into Lyra's gut. "I knew your mother... And regretfully, your father... I met you once, too, when you were a baby." Lyra studied the man's scarred face. She didn't recognize him, but he spoke so earnestly that she knew he was being honest. "I take it you aren't friends with Harry Potter?"

"No. I'm in Slytherin. And they're just a bunch of reckless Gryffindors who act as though they're better than I am just because they wear red and gold and-" Lyra saw the corners of his lips tug upward. "What? Why is that amusing?"

"_You're_ in Slytherin?" He said.

"Yes," She said defensively. "What? D'you think I'm evil like... Like my _father_ is too, just because of that?"

"Not at all," Lupin assured her. "I simply think it's a strange twist of fate. Your father hated Slytherin house."

"Really?" Lyra felt a weight lift off of her shoulders. She felt a new surge of pride for her house. She _wasn't_ like him. She looked like her mother, and she'd be sorted into a house that her father hated.

"Yes," Lupin replied. "Now, I've got to go be a proper professor. And look, I do believe that's your cat. I'll see you later." He smiled and then rushed off down the hall. Lyra looked down to where Calypso was lounging in the middle of the hall. She laughed and shook her head.

"C'mere you," Lyra said to the cat. She lifted her up into her arms and then went to her compartment. Bracing herself for questions, she wandered in.

"Hi," She said weakly to the astonished eyes of Daphne and Tracey. She noticed Blaise had left.

"Where'd you go?" Tracey asked as if nothing had happened. "Blaise went to look for you, but I think he really just went to sit with Draco..."

"Yeah," Daphne said without a hint of bitterness in his voice. "I don't mind though. If he's going to get all _weird_ just because your birth father's a serial killer.."

"Mass murderer, Daph," Tracey corrected. "There's a difference."

Lyra felt a smile creep onto her lips as she stared at her two friends.

"You don't mind?" Lyra said to them. The two girls looked at her and laughed.

"Lyra," Tracey said. "My dad's a _muggle_."

"Yeah, but he's never killed anyone," Lyra grumbled. Daphne nodded in agreement, but the smile never left her face.

"No," Tracey said. "He hasn't, but you've never met your dad. You weren't even raised by him. If you didn't judge me for being _raised_ by a muggle, then who am I to judge you for sharing fifty percent of your genetic material with a man who killed twelve muggles out of cold blood?"

"Yeah," Daphne laughed. "I mean... They probably asked for it, right?"

The three girls stared at each other in silence for a moment. They fell into laughter and hugged each other. The door slid open behind Lyra, and Professor Lupin peaked his head in.

"Sorry to disturb you, but I thought I'd let you know that there's only ten minutes until we arrive. You best change into your uniforms."

"Thanks," Lyra smiled at him. The door closed. Daphne was staring at her with a bemused look on her face.

"_Who's that_?" Tracey aked.

"Professor Lupin. He's a new teacher here," Lyra replied.

"He's cute," Daphne said. Tracey and Lyra whipped their heads around and gave her a strange look. "In the sort of, rugged-old-man kind of way... You know..."

"He's old enough to be your father," Tracey playfully hit her knee. The three girls took turns holding up a towel in front of the window in the door as they changed into their uniforms and got their things together. Lyra had never been more relieved to have the friends she did. She remembered something Gemma Farley, the prefect in her first year had told her...

"_We Slytherins are brothers. The corridors of Hogwarts can throw up surprises for the unwary, and you'll be glad you've got the Serpents on your side as you move around the school... As far as we're concerned, once you've become a snake, you're one of ours..."_

As Lyra looked between Daphne and Tracey, she knew it was true. While not every Slytherin, _Draco_, might agree, those who had been her friends would continue being her friends no matter what. _After all, Slytherins are all plucked for the seeds of greatness,_ Lyra thought to herself. _Maybe that's why my dad hated them... Because they would always be greater than he would be._

She was wrong, of course, but it comforted her as she got off the train and looked at the Hogwarts lights twinkling in the distance.

* * *

**A/N: So I stole a bit from the Pottermore Slytherin house acceptance letter here. Anyway, please review (gently), it means a lot to get feedback. I hope you enjoyed this. More to come!**

**xo,Sophie**


	3. Bloodstains

**A**/**N: Thanks to my reviewers and new followers/favourites. I'm really glad that you guys are enjoying this! Lyra's sort of a little character I had in my head one day when I imagined Sirius' reaction to his child being sorted into Slytherin. It'll be great. Just you wait. Anyway, here's the next little bit! Cheers! xo**

* * *

_**Slytherin Table, September 2nd, 1993**_

Lyra sat serenely overlooking her timetable for the year while she drank her morning pumpkin juice.

"You're not taking Divination, are you?" Tracey asked curiously as she inspected her own timetable. "My mum said it's a load of rubbish.

"It _is_ a load of rubbish. That's why I'm taking Arithmancy," Daphne sat down beside Lyra and plucked a piece of toast off of a pile. They glanced up and down the table. At the other end, Malfoy was clearly mocking Harry's fit on the train. "I can't believe you were there when Potter fainted. Did he look ridiculous? Was it as funny as Malfoy says?"

"No," Lyra shrugged her shoulders. "It was a bit frightening really. I thought Potter was going to pop his clogs... And arithmancy's not _all_ that better than divination. It's just fortune telling with _numbers_."

"Yeah, but numbers are finite," Tracey shrugged. "It's something solid, at the very least."

"It's still rubbish," Lyra teased. She picked up a piece of bacon with her fingers and popped it into her mouth. After she'd chewed and swallowed, she looked over at Tracey. "I'm taking Muggle Studies over both of those."

"What good is Muggle Studies?" Daphne laughed. "We _have_ magic. Why d'we need to learn how to live without it?"

"I dunno," Lyra shrugged. "I just find it fascinating."

"Yeah," Tracey rolled her eyes. "It's not that great, really. My dad spends half his time wishing he was magical like us."

"As he should," Daphne said. "What are your other electives?" As it turned out, the only elective that they all had in common was Care of Magical Creatures that afternoon. Lyra glanced down at her watch, and smiled.

"See you at Defense Against the Dark Arts," Lyra said as she shoved her timetable into her satchel. "Enjoy your fortune-telling!"

Lyra had been the only Slytherin in the entire Muggle Studies class. She'd been forced to sit in between a Ravenclaw that kept giving her nasty looks when she asked questions and Granger. The first lesson comprised of an introduction to life outside of the wizarding world; cars, toasters, and ballpoint pens (which, to be quite frank, Lyra saw as being far more functional than quills and ink.) Lyra even had the joy of shooting Hermione nasty looks every time she raised her hand to correct Professor Burbage. As soon as the class was over, she skidded out of the hall anxious to get back to the few people who weren't giving her strange looks now that news regarding Sirius Black's paternity had spread.

As she headed towards her next class, she passed Ron, Harry and Hermione, who seemed to manage to leave the Muggle Studies class eerily quickly in order to catch up to the two other Gryffindors. Lyra watched as she left with a strange feeling eating her gut. As she stared, Harry turned around and gave her a nasty look. That shook out any curiosity she had. Lyra gave him an equally rude look and kept walking.

* * *

_**Hogwarts Library, May 8th, 1993**_

_Lyra had promised to meet Tracey and Daphne at the quidditch pitch as soon as she was done with her potions assignment. She had been locked away in the library for so long that when she heard the scream and dull thud, she almost didn't look up. She wished she hadn't. Lyra hesitantly made her way from her tables, leaving her parchment spread out on the table. As she peaked around the corner, her heart stopped in her chest. _

_Madame Pince and Professor Snape heard the blood curdling scream from the second floor of the library. Snape's black robes billowed as he swept down the stairs as quickly as he could. On the floor, petrified, were Hermione Granger and Penelope Clearwater. Standing in between them, shaking and crying was Lyra Black. _

"_I didn't do it," Lyra sobbed as she heard the footsteps. "It wasn't me, I swear..." She turned around and saw Professor Snape as well as the Hogwarts Librarian. With a blubbering cry, she flung her arms around Professor Snape's waist and buried her head into his robes. He stood frozen for a moment before he placed one of his hands, awkwardly, on the back of her blonde head._

"_Oh, my dear girl," Madame Pince whispered. She looked up, sympathetically, to Severus Snape. His expression was frozen into one of utter shock. It was the first time in his teaching career that a student had sought solace in such a manner. Of all the students, it had to be the daughter of the man responsible for Lily's death... _

"_Irma, fetch Albus, Minerva and Poppy," Snape said firmly, but quietly. He stood in his place while Lyra cried into his chest. Madame Pince nodded and hurried away. As the door closed behind him, he pat Lyra's head once more. "There, there," He said stiffly, unsure of how to proceed. After a moment he asked, "Miss Black," No, that was too formal. The girl was crying into his chest, "Lyra, did you... Did you see anything?"_

"_N-n-no," She whimpered. Snape was certain he'd have snot stains on his robes by the time she was finished. _

"_Are you hurt?" His words, this time, sounded almost tender. For a moment, he didn't mind who her father was. She was just a scared little girl in his house. She pulled away, her eyes red and swollen. Her bottom lip trembled and she shook her head. Snape's black eyes studied her face for a moment. He reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief, "That will probably be a lot nicer than my robes, Miss Black."_

"_S-s-sorry, Professor," Lyra hiccuped with her tears and gratefully took the handkerchief to dap her face. _

_When Madame Pince returned, she was followed by Professor Dumbledore, Professor McGonnagall and Madame Pomfrey. The head boy and girl were behind them, and Gilderoy Lockhart followed them. Lyra watched as the teachers fretted about the two students. Professor Lockhart took a step towards her, but Snape side-stepped to block him. The headmaster and her head of house spoke in hushed tones. Professor McGonnagall kept glancing over at her, nervously, and it wasn't until she felt a firm hand on her shoulder that she realized it was time to leave._

_Professor Snape guided her down the hall towards the staff room. He sat Lyra down in a soft arm chair and put a bit of calming draught in the cup of tea he brewed her. Lyra was terrified by his gruff demeanor. She was certain that he was furious at her for something, perhaps her inaction when she saw the bodies, or her cowardice. Lyra sat on the edge of her seat and kept her eyes on the floor._

"_Drink," He said as he placed the mug of tea in front of her. Lyra did as she was told. She sipped the tea and kept her eyes on the table in front of her. As soon as she had swallowed, her heart stopped threatening to explode and slowed down to that of a panicked rabbit. "You're certain you didn't see anything?"_

"_Yes... Er- no, I mean... I didn't see anything, I just..." Lyra stumbled over her words. "I just heard... I don't know, I suppose you could say slithering, but it wasn't-" A tear slipped down her cheek. "You must think I'm a coward..."_

"_On the contrary," Snape said. "For a Slytherin, walking towards the threat of danger rather than away... That was very brave. Keep drinking." _

_Lyra did as she was told. She sipped the chamomile tea until her hands stopped trembling. She looked up at the head of her house who was seated beside her and watching her with an uneasy curiosity. _

"_What's going to happen now, Professor?" She whispered. _

"_Never you mind," He replied. "That's for the adults to worry about."_

_Professor Snape and Lyra sat in silence for a moment. As Lyra studied the grain of the wooden table, Snape studied her face. The less similarities he found between Sirius Black and Lyra Black, the easier it became for him to speak to her. As he watched the lines smooth out from between her eyebrows, the after effect of the calming draught, he clenched his jaw in case she noticed the small smile creeping on his lips._

* * *

_**Hogwarts Castle, September 2nd, 1993**_

After lunch, Lyra was elated to finally be outside. Her skin ached for the sunlit days of summer. She had rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and untucked it under her vest. As she bounded across the lawn between the castle and Care of Magical Creatures class, she was elated that the rain had let up from yesterday and had gave way to a pale sky and the smell of clean earth.

"You're like a bloody golden retriever," Tracey laughed as she chased after Lyra. Lyra spun around with her arms outstretched for dramatic effect and grinned at her friends. Daphne and Tracey just rolled their eyes and tried to catch up with her.

As the three of them skidded to a halt, giggling and flushed from their run, they sobered up as they ran into other Slytherins gathered around the hut. Lyra pulled her hair into a ponytail and glanced around at her other housemates that were giving her various degrees of disproving looks.

Just then, Lyra started to notice the red and gold that was interspersed with the green and silver. Her heart sank as she realized she'd be taking this class with the Gryffindors.

"Great," Tracey whispered. "As if it wasn't enough that I had to deal with Granger in Arithmancy." Lyra looked over at Tracey with a puzzled look on her face. She opened her mouth to ask how it was possible that Hermione Granger was in Muggle Studies _and_ Arithmancy this morning, but before she could, Hagrid cleared his throat.

"Got a real treat for yeh today! Great lesson comin' up! Everyone here? Right, follow me!"

The group of students moved towards the Forbidden Forest.

"He's not going to _take _us in there, is he?" Daphne hissed in Lyra's ear. Lyra shrugged her shoulders, feeling just as alarmed. Just then they were jostled by Harry, Hermione and Ron who struggled to get to the head of the group from behind them.

"Watch it, Potter!" Lyra snapped. Ron stuck his tongue out at her and Hermione simply ignored her.

"You watch it," Harry replied. "It's your dad that wants me dead."

Lyra lunged forward with her hand on her wand, but Daphne and Tracey grabbed either one of her arms.

"Well, hopefully, her dad gets to you first then," Tracey smirked. Lyra was shaking as they approached the edge of the forest where there was an empty paddock. Whispers emerged among the students as Hagrid stood in front of the entrance to the paddock.

"Right, take out yer books," Hagrid said. Lyra reached inside her bag and pulled out her bag that Andromeda had enchanted shut. She looked around and saw the other solutions to the problem. Tracey's book had green ribbon wrapped around it. Daphne's had a length of rope.

"How?" Draco sneered. Lyra hoped his book tried to bite his head off so she didn't have to. Hagrid was a kind man, even though he was a bit partial to the Gryffindors... Well, at least three specific Gryffindors.

"Eh?" Hagrid raised one of his bushy eyebrows.

"How do we open our books?" Draco repeated. His tone became more insulant as he waited for a response. Hagrid looked at all of the students. His eyes shifted from confused face to restrained book.

"None of yeh 'ave been able to open yer books?" Hagrid said, sounding rather disappointed. When the class shook their heads, Hagrid grabbed Hermione's sellotaped book and rolled his eyes. "Yer supposed to stroke it..." The book immediately tried to snap at him, until he ran a finger down its spine. "Look..." The book fell open in the palm of his hand.

"Oh, how silly we've all been," Draco rolled his eyes. "We should have _stroked_ them! Why didn't we just guess!"

"I... I thought they were funny," Hagrid said uncertainly. Lyra felt the same ice creep into her veins that she had on the train. She knew it was only a matter of time before the fire followed. Beside her, she heard Daphne snicker along with Malfoy's crew. "Oh! Tremendously funny!" Draco continued on. "Really witty, that was, giving us a book that tries to maim us!"

"Shut up, Malfoy," Harry grumbled. Lyra took a deep breath as she removed the enchantment from her book and stroked the spine so that it fell open. Hagrid awkwardly excused himself to go find the magical creatures about which they'd be learning and left the students to themselves.

"God, this place is going to the dogs," Draco said loudly while Hagrid walked away. "That oaf teaching classes, my father'll have a fit when I tell him -"

Harry opened his mouth to tell Draco to shut up again, but before he could, Lyra's voice cut through the air.

"And maybe I'll tell _my_ father about you. How does that sound, cousin?" Lyra said. All eyes fell on her and she felt a blush creep up on her cheeks. She hadn't meant to say it that loudly. Whispers filled the air around her and she noticed Tracey giving her a look of shock mixed with disappointment.

"What?" Draco spluttered as he stared at his second cousin.

"You heard me," Lyra shrugged her shoulders to seem more at ease with her threat. In reality her blood was pounding inside of her eardrums, loudly, and she felt her palms start to sweat.

"You wouldn't... You probably couldn't," Draco said as though he was trying to convince himself more than anyone else.

"Try me, Draco," Lyra said quietly. "We'll see who's bluffing."

"I- I-" Draco stuttered.

"What was that?" Lyra smiled sweetly. Lavender Brown suddenly let out a squeal of delight as she pointed to the paddock. Lyra's heart leapt with joy as she looked at her favourite magical creatures en masse as they trotted in front of Hagrid. _Hippogriffs_. Impulsively she smacked Tracey on the arm with a huge grin on her face, "Trace! Trace, look! Oh Merlin... I've always wanted to see one up close..."

"Easy, Ly," Tracey laughed as she rubbed the place on her arm that Lyra had hit. "They're just-"

"_The best thing ever._" Lyra's voice became low, like she was whispering a sacred text. Daphne and Tracey exchanged looks behind her back. She was an odd duck, their Lyra.

"Beau'iful, aren' they?" Hagrid beamed with pride as he chained the hippogriffs to the fence in front of them. People had backed up as soon as they were close. Tracey and Daphne had to drag Lyra back with them. "So, if yeh want to come a bit closer..."

He didn't have to ask Lyra twice. She wrenched herself free of Tracey's protective grasp and stepped towards Hagrid. She was so excited that she was in the presence of _actual_ hippogriffs that she didn't notice that she was the only one from her house to step forward. The only other students, in fact, that had stepped forward were Granger, Potter and Weasley.

"Now, firs' thing yeh gotta know 'bout Hippogriffs is they're proud," Hagrid said. Lyra grinned as she studied the grey hippogriff with great orange eyes. They were huge! Larger than she'd imagined. "Easily offended, Hippogriffs are. Don't never insult one, 'cause it might be the last thing yeh do."

Lyra couldn't take her eyes off of them. She'd only ever seen illustrations in books, and photographs of them that Andromeda had taken from magizoologists she'd known... Lyra had always loved them. When she was seven, she'd asked for one for a pet, but Andromeda and Ted had just laughed. '_Hippogriffs aren't meant for pets, darling._'

"Yeh always wait fer the Hippogriff ter make the firs' move. It's polite, see? Yeh walk towards him, and yeh bow, an' yeh wait. If he bows back, yeh're allowed ter touch him. If he doesn't bow, then get away from him sharpish-"

"Because of the talons," Lyra burst out. "They're sharp and they can slice you properly in half. A full grown hippogriff was once reported has having disemboweled a Congolese tribalman when he insulted him by accident. But hippogriffs are also reported as being gentle, so long as you play to their pride."

"Right you are, Lyra," Hagrid beamed at her, while the other students stared at her incredulously. She was soft spoken, most of the time, but today, she'd not only challenged Draco Malfoy, she was spouting information about Hippogriffs from memory. "So, would you like ter go first?"

"First?" Lyra suddenly seized up.

"Yeah, Black," Ron Weasley smirked at her. "You know so much about Hippogriffs. Why don't you go up and ride one?"

"I... Well... Er.."

"That's what I thought," Ron rolled his eyes. "Coward."

"Shut up, Weasley," Daphne walked over to Lyra and put her arm protectively around her shoulder. "You _ride_ one then, if you're so brave."

"I'll do it, Hagrid," Harry said.

Lyra watched grumpily as, _of course_, everything went Potter's way. The grey hippogriff, Buckbeak, bowed down to him. She wondered what it must be like to be so reckless with your own safety that it didn't seem scary at all to face a creature that could _literally rip you in half_ with its claws. After Harry returned from flying around, Lyra practically leapt into the paddock. If Potter could survive, then she could. _Though_, Lyra thought as she approached the midnight black hippogriff, _that's probably a terrible standard to set for myself... After all, he's the boy who __lived__._

"This is so easy I bet a first year could do it," Lyra heard Malfoy drawl as she bowed in front of the midnight black hippogriff. She kept eye contact with it as it bowed down in front of her. "I bet you're not dangerous at all, are you?"

Lyra pat the midnight black hippogriff on its beak and it nuzzled its head into her head. Lyra turned and grinned at Tracey who had given up after she had to run away from hers. Tracey gave her a tentative thumbs up. That was when it happened.

"Are you, you great, ugly brute?" Malfoy's voice made Lyra's head whip around. It happened so quickly... Blood splattered across the grass and Malfoy was groaning as he rolled around on it, clutching his arm. Hagrid carried him out and left the class outside of the paddock.

"Oh my god," Daphne and Pansy were screaming. Pansy had tears streaming down her face.

"They should sack him straight away!" Pansy said.

"Why?" Lyra mumbled. She hated it when this happened. All of the Slytherins were shouting nasty things about him, even Tracey and Daphne who had gotten caught up in the heat of the moment. When a Slytherin was injured, they were supposed to rally around each other.

"It was Malfoy's fault!" Dean Thomas snapped. Lyra nodded her head in agreement while Crabbe and Goyle flexed their muscles threateningly.

"I'm going to see if he's okay!" Pansy declared loudly. Lyra watched in shock as Daphne Greengrass, the girl who was supposed to be on _her_ side during debates like this, followed her up the steps to the Entrance Hall. Tracey went to follow her.

"Tracey," Lyra called after her. "He'll be _fine_."

"How do you know?" Tracey said nervously. "Listen, I'm just going to check with the others."

Lyra was left alone in the entrance hall with the Gryffindors while the rest of her house disappeared from view and around the corner towards the dungeons. She heard Granger, Potter and Weasley talking behind her.

"D'you think he'll be alright?" Granger's voice sounded behind her.

"'Course he will," Potter said. Their eyes all shifted awkwardly to Lyra who didn't feel much like heading back to a dungeon filled with her own house mates. "Madame Pomfrey can heal cuts in a second."

"Leave it to the Slytherins to mess up Hagrid's first lesson," Weasley said grumpily shooting Lyra a nasty look. Harry watched as she visibly deflated.

"Well, it was really just Malfoy, wasn't it?" He replied. Lyra glanced over her shoulder at them as they started to head towards the Gryffindor tower. Harry stood frozen, watching her for a while, before Hermione tugged on his robes.

"Harry, c'mon... Stop feeling sorry for her, she should have expected it," Hermione hissed in his ear. Lyra watched them retreat before she noticed that one of them had dropped their timetable on the ground. She picked it up and considered pocketing it when she saw it was Granger's, but another part of her was so mad with the rest of the inhabitants of her house that she chased after them.

"Oi! Potter!" Lyra called out as she hopped onto the staircase just in time for it to start moving. "One of your mates dropped this." She ran up the stairs and handed it to him.

"Oh," Harry stared at her wide-eyed. "Er... Thanks, Black."

"You're welcome," Lyra said. Weasley shot her another nasty look. "What is it, Weasley?" She snapped before she could stop herself. It was habit.

"Nothing," Ron said defensively. "It's just not often Slytherins do things for Gryffindors."

"Consider it my repentance for Malfoy," Lyra said. "You know, Potter, it was brave what you did. Riding Buckbeak like that."

"Yeah, well, he's a Gryffindor, isn't he?" Weasley continued. "That's what we do. We're the brave and chivalrous."

Lyra stared Weasley up and down with her piercing gaze. Her pale eyes shifted over to Granger who looked most uncomfortable that she'd joined them on the stairs at all.

"I wasn't talking to you, _Weasley_," Lyra snapped. "Listen, er- I hope they don't sack Hagrid. I quite like him." She turned down the stairs and started to walk away.

"I don't think you should talk to her anymore," Hermione whispered to Harry as they continued up the steps. "Just... Don't encourage her. Sirius Black is her father, so if he's out looking for you... Maybe she's just trying to get close to you for him."

"She's in Slytherin, after all," Ron agreed with Hermione. "I wouldn't put it past her."

* * *

**A/N: Ah, interhouse dynamics... I always like the idea that even people were sorted into one house could have traits of the other houses. You know, like Peter Pettigrew being a slimy little git. I hoped you enjoyed this! The Snape/Lyra teacher/student relationship is something I'm going to develop a bit. Inner Snape Turmoil is my fave. Anyway, let me know what you think! Any thoughts, comments, things you like/didn't like, is my characterization okay? Am I half-decent at this?**

**Lots of love, you guys are fab! **

**Sophie**


	4. Carrion

**A/N: Whoooa. So much input on the last chapter! It was great! :) I really appreciate all of you readers, and I hope that you continue to like this story no matter the direction it takes. You guys are the best. Without further ado, Chapter 3.**

_**Double Potions, September 9th, 1993**_

Lyra had her head bowed as she delicately sliced the daisy roots for her shrinking solution. Her blonde hair was pulled into a disheveled bun at the top of her head with wisps of hair sticking out all over due to the humidity of all the brewing cauldrons. Beside her, Daphne was re-reading the instructions and inspecting her own roots in comparison to Lyra's. Just as Daphne opened her mouth to ask a question, Malfoy sauntered in. It was his first appearance in class for a week since he'd provoked Buckbeak. Unfortunately for her, however, she'd had to deal with his whinging and whining. Crabbe and Goyle had been particularly whipped in bringing Draco anything his heart desired. Not that they had needed to, most of the girls in their year had been doting on the poor wounded hero.

"How is it, Draco?" Pansy put on a high girlish voice. "Does it hurt much?"

"Yeah," Draco put on his best brave expression. Lyra rolled her eyes and turned back to her daisy roots.

"Settle down, settle down," Professor Snape said as the whispers and chatter started up.

Lyra hadn't moved. She just continued to work on her potion until it was the perfect acid green. As she let it stew, she tried to stifle her anger while she heard Draco talking about his father's complaints about Hagrid. It wasn't that he was a _bad _teacher. It was just that he was misguided and overly enthusiastic. It certainly, however, was not his fault. She looked at the leech juice that still remained in her flask and considered all sorts of nasty things she could do to sabotage the shrinking solution that Malfoy was having Potter and Weasley make for him.

"Orange, Longbottom," Professor Snape's disdain echoed around the class. Lyra looked up from her notes for a moment to see him ladle a portion of the failed shrinking solution for the class to see. "Orange. Tell me, boy, does anything penetrate that thick skull of yours?"

Lyra tuned out. Poor Neville was pink in the face and shaking with fear. She'd never seen a cowardly Gryffindor before, but the poor boy was easily the most scared of the bunch. She often wondered how it was that he was sorted into the house at all. It wasn't until Seamus Finnegan, the Irish git, as far as Lyra was concerned, in Gryffindor, mentioned Sirius Black that her head flicked back around.

"The Daily Prophet reckons Sirius Black's been sighted."

"Where?" Potter and Weasley said at the same time. Lyra picked up her vial of leftover leech juice and craned her neck to try and hear better.

"Not too far from here," said Seamus. "It was a muggle who saw him... Didn't quite understand, y'see... 'phoned a muggle hotline or something like it."

"Not too far from here," Weasley shot Lyra a look and she jumped with shock that he'd noticed her at all. Her movement caused her to fall off her stool. The leech juice went flying out of her hands and landed, conveniently, in Draco Malfoy's cauldron. Seamus Finnegan stopped dead in his tracks. All heads turned and looked at Lyra, who lifted herself off the floor and dusted off her uniform while her cheeks flushed red.

"You alright, Ly?" Daphne asked as she looked her friend up and down. Lyra nodded.

"Fine," She mumbled. "I'm fine." Professor Snape gave her a questioning look with his eyebrow raised but she simply shook her head and looked down at her cauldron bubbling with acid green shrinking solution.

"You've ruined my potion!" Draco shouted in outrage. His cauldron had started to shift in colour and produce a foul odor.

"I ruined Potter and Weasley's second batch of potion, more like," Lyra grumbled. She packed up the rest of her ingredients and put them away. "Not like it was going to be a brilliant piece of work anyway."

"_Professor!_" Draco's good hand shot into the air. "_Professor_! Black's sabotaged my potion! She's sabotaged my potion and betrayed the house of Slytherin just like her father betrayed-"

"Now, now, Draco," Professor Snape said quickly, cutting him off. "Let's not be overdramatic. It appeared to be an accident."

"She did it on purpose!" Draco insisted.

"I did _not_," Lyra said indignantly. "I _fell _off my seat! It was an accident!"

"Fat chance!" Draco snapped. Potter and Weasley snickered from the back of the room where they had started rinsing off their ladles and hands in the stone basin.

"Malfoy, Black, that is _enough_," Professor Snape dismissed them both with his tone. "We're about to test Longbottom's solution on his _toad_, so shape up or I'll-"

Lyra didn't say anything else. She put a stopper in her vial of shrinking solution. She stormed out of the classroom as Draco called out after her.

"That's right, run away! Go find your daddy then!"

The door to the classroom slammed behind her, so she didn't have the pleasure of watching Professor Snape swat Malfoy upside the head as he walked past. Lyra broke into a run as she made her way upstairs from the dungeons. Her heart pounded in her chest and by the time she had made it upstairs, her eyes were filled with angry, fat tears and she was hyperventilating. Sirius Black had been spotted not far from Hogwarts.

She pressed her back against the cold stone and waited for her breathing to calm down before she opened her eyes and stared at the ceiling.

"All right?" Lyra's head whipped around and she saw Harry standing awkwardly with her book bag in his hand. Her eyes narrowed as she looked him up and down. Daphne and Tracey appeared behind him and gave her a strange look as they walked with the other Slytherins and Gryffindors towards the Great Hall.

"Yes," Lyra said coolly as she took her bag and draped it over her shoulders. She started to walk away.

"You're welcome, Black," He called out after her. "Now we're even, yeah? You picked up Hermione's time table, I brought you your bag..."

"I didn't realize we were keeping score," Lyra turned around. "In that case, I suppose, since I don't owe you anything, I'll have to help my father into the castle." Harry blanched and picked up his pace to catch up with her.

"You're joking," Harry said, sounding rather nervous. Lyra looked at the panic-stricken expression on his face and shrugged her shoulders.

"Oh, I don't know, Potter," Lyra pulled her hair out of the knot atop her head and pulled out the ends. "You're pretty bothersome. There are a lot of people who'd profit if you were... _taken care of_."

"Oi! Harry," Weasley called out. "Don't fraternize with her! Didn't you hear Seamus? Sirius _Black _was spotted _close by."_

Lyra glanced over at Harry who had fallen in step with her. She raised a blonde eyebrow and flipped her hair over her shoulder.

"You don't fool me, Black," Harry said flatly. He slowed down falling behind her in pace. "You don't even know where he is."

"Then you have absolutely nothing to be frightened of, Potter," Lyra said cagily. "You should, in fact, simply go hunt him down..." She turned to face him, walking backwards down the hall, "Isn't that the sort of brave, reckless thing a Gryffindor would do?"

"Why would I hunt him down?" Harry called after her as she turned her back to him. "He hasn't done anything to me yet."

"Well, if you don't know what he has done, there's no use me telling you," Lyra called out. She held her arm up and waved at him. "I wouldn't want to _provoke_ you."

"That's exactly what she's trying to do, mate," Ron said as he caught up to Harry. "She's just trying to get a rise... You should've just let her mates take her bag."

* * *

_**September 12th, 1993**_

Lyra wasn't the first person to arrive to Defense Against the Dark Arts, but Tracey had saved her a seat. She went and sat down beside her.

"How was arithmancy?" Lyra grinned.

"It would've been better if Granger hadn't kept asking questions," Tracey rolled her eyes. Lyra opened her mouth to ask how it was possible that Granger had asked questions in both Muggle Studies and Arithmancy, but before she had the chance, Professor Lupin walked in in his shabby robes.

"Good morning," He smiled kindly at the whole class. "You should put your books away, as today we'll be having a practical lesson."

"Define _practical_, sir," Pansy Parkinson said from her side of the classroom. "Last I checked the Dark Lord was vanquished and Dark Arts is a lost practice." A few people sniggered, but Malfoy laughed louder than ever. Lyra's eyes drifted from the commotion they were causing back to Professor Lupin.

"Well, then consider it a just in case lesson," Lupin replied. "Today we'll be dealing with boggarts. Come with me..."

_Boggarts_. The world reverberated throughout the Slytherin third year class. The class made their way throughout the halls and passed Professor Snape on the way. As the Slytherins cheered at him, Snape kept his professional demeanor, and with a small smile, he turned and said to Professor Lupin, "Try not to _bite_ my students, Lupin. They are after all the best class you'll have this year."

Lupin smiled curtly and continued walking until they reached a broom cupboard that's door was banging about.

"Anyone here know much about boggarts?"

Not a single hand raised. Lupin raised an eyebrow and looked about the students until his eyes fell on a familiar blonde head.

"Lyra," He smiled at her. "What about you? Have your godparents taught you anything about boggarts?"

"Only that they're shapeshifters of the worst kind, sir," Lyra replied. His smiled weakened a bit and he chuckled under his breath.

"Well, they're certainly up there," Lupin replied. "Boggarts are shapeshifters who shift into your worst fear. Did your godparents tell you anything about where they like to live?"

"Dark places?" Lyra offered up hesitantly. Malfoy rolled his eyes to her left and Pansy Parkinson let out a small laugh.

"Very good," Lupin smiled encouragingly. He turned to Pansy and asked, "Would you like to go first, Miss-?"

"Parkinson," Daphne piped up with her last name. Professor Lupin smiled at Daphne and then turned to Pansy.

"Miss Parkinson," He finished.

"Me?" Pansy squeaked. Lyra turned and grinned at her.

"Or are you too much of a _pansy_?" Lyra quipped. Laughter echoed around the group of students, but Pansy simply reached over and shoved her.

"No," She said. "I'll go."

"Very good," Lupin said. "Now, before we start, can anyone tell me what advantage we already have over the boggart?"

"If it shifts into a person's worst fear," Blaise Zabini said, "then we're at the advantage because there are so many of us."

"Exactly," Professor Lupin said. "I once saw a boggart try to shift into two people's fears at once... It didn't work very well." He paced up and down in front of the rattling broom cupboard door. After making them all practice the boggart countercurse, _riddikulus_, Pansy stepped out to the door and the rest of the students walked to the sides to allow for the boggart to take the form of her greatest fear. Professor Lupin opened the door and stepped back. All eyes flickered between Pansy and the open door.

Finally, a giant crab walked out of the cupboard, snapping its pincers at her. Her eyes widened and Lyra could have sworn she saw a bead of sweat drop down her forehead over Pansy's pug-like nose. After a moment, Lupin prompted her to think of something that would make the grab really funny and ushered her to do something.

"_Riddikulus!_" Pansy said. She closed her eyes and only opened them when she heard laughter. The crab had become dressed up like a muggle actress on the red carpet. Pansy grinned and then Professor Lupin began to usher other students to face their fears.

It was all so much fun, that when Lyra's name was finally called, she didn't think twice before stepping up to the plate. With a wide smile on her face, she waited for the boggart to take the form of her worst fear. She was certain that she'd be able to handle it without a problem. The door opened and she heard ominous footsteps making their way towards her. Out of the shadows, dressed in prison garbs with a ragged beard and long nails was Sirius Black. His yellowed teeth glinted at her as he grinned. Lyra dropped her wand. The breath in her throat caught. That wasn't a boggart. It had all been a trick to get close to her.

Her blood rushed through her head and her ears as she stared hopelessly at the escaped prisoner. Professor Lupin stepped in front of her and the boggart changed to a round, shiny object that Lyra wasn't paying much attention to. She scrambled for her wand and rushed over to Daphne and Tracey, who gaped at her with open mouths. She could hear Malfoy sniggering behind her.

"That's all for today, you're dismissed," Professor Lupin said to the class. Lyra turned to leave, ashamed with herself, when she heard Lupin say, "Miss Black, if I may have a word with you."

"When did you find out?" Professor Lupin asked as he walked with her towards the Great Hall for lunch.

"That _he_ was my father?" Lyra confirmed. "The day after he escaped. It was all over the news and- My god-mum figured she had to tell me... It made sense then..."

"What made sense?" He smiled kindly at her. Lyra shrugged.

"Why they never talked about him before," She replied. "I heard plenty of stories about my mum and just assumed that he was dead too. I wish he was..." Professor Lupin looked down at her and shook his head. Her sentiment hit a little too close to home.

"You're not him, you know," Professor Lupin told her. Lyra looked up at him and smiled weakly. "Don't let anyone tell you that you are."

"You don't know that," Lyra said. "I could be just as awful."

Professor Lupin's amber eyes filled with even more sadness than before. He opened his mouth as though he was about to tell her something, and then closed it, having thought better of it.

"You aren't," He said finally as they reached the doors to the Great Hall. "It's your choices that make you who you are, not your blood."

"Easy for you to say," Lyra scoffed. "You're not the one with the mass murderer for a dad."

Professor Lupin chuckled darkly. He looked down at the girl for a moment and then smiled once more.

"That's true," He said. "But I have secrets of my own."

* * *

_**September 30th, 1993**_

_Dear Dora,_

_The new DADA teacher is great! I think he might be replacing Professor Snape as my new favourite... But don't tell him that. We've learned about boggarts, Red Caps and Kappas. Boggarts was probably my least favourite. Don't tell mum and dad, er- your mum and dad, I suppose. Am I still allowed to call them that now I know? Anyway, my boggart... Guess who I saw? Terrifying really. And dreadfully embarrassing. Have your auror friends gotten any closer to catching him? I just want him done with... Why'd _he_ have to be my dad?_

_I miss you. I miss all of you. I hope auror training is going well. I can't wait to see you all over Christmas. Quidditch try-outs start soon. I'm excited. I'm pretty much a sure-thing for first chaser this year! _

_All my love,_

_LC_

* * *

_**Quidditch Pitch, October 15th, 1993**_

As Lyra walked out of the girl's change room, Cassius Warrington sprinted over and lifted her up over one of his shoulders. She shrieked with laughter and writhed around as he continued running, with her draped over his shoulder, towards the pitch. Cassius was two years older than her, but had treated her as though she were his little sister, especially when it came to Draco and Marcus Flint, who had taken a disliking to her now her name was besmirched.

"Not sure what he's thinking," Cassius teased as he put her down on the spongey grass of the quidditch pitch. "Your name was besmirched before... We just didn't know about it." Lyra rolled her eyes as she stretched out her arms and legs to prepare for practice.

"Heeey," Cassius suddenly grinned as though he'd gotten a brilliant idea. "We'll be sure to win the Quidditch cup this year if your dad knocks off the Gryffindor seeker... What d'you think? Pull a few strings for us, eh, Ly?"

"Cass, I've never even met him," Lyra laughed and shook her head. She paused and then said, "But I'm sure I could _try..._" Cassius barked with laughter. Lyra grinned and adjusted her ponytail. She watched as Marcus Flint spoke in hushed tones with Draco Malfoy on the other side of the pitch. "You know, if Flint was going to be such a grump about it all, he could've just kept on Montague."

"Yeah, but then we'd lose the gender diversity card," Cassius elbowed her playfully. Lyra rolled her eyes and then ran on the spot a bit. The nights were getting cooler, fast, and she just wanted to start moving around. Quidditch had become her favourite thing as soon as she realized it was a place she could compete, healthily, with Harry Potter without being accused of one-upmanship.

"Right," Marcus Flint walked out in front of everyone with his chest all puffed up. Draco strut alongside him haughtily. "We're going to start with some maneuvering drills. I don't want any mistakes this year. No hiccups. This year, we're going to put Gryffindor in their place. I'm not letting Wood steal my last Quidditch cup from me. Is that clear?"

"Crystal," the team repeated back.

The practice was long and grueling. It had started raining, drenching everyone in cold water. Lyra's entire body ached. She had ended up caked with mud after Draco knocked her off her broom at a low enough level that it was considered horse-play by everyone else. As she was the only girl apart from a very large seventh year beater, Lyra quietly made her way back to the castle on her own, shivering slightly. As she walked inside in her soaked green and silver training gear, she rounded a corner and ran into Potter.

"Oh, sorry," She mumbled as she stepped to the side to let him pass. They kept stepping in the same direction until finally Lyra stood still and leveled her gaze with his. "Go on then, pass me."

"Oh, c'mon... Too tired after just one practice, Black?" Harry said as he stepped to the same side as her again, taunting her now. "I could do this all day."

"Stepping from side to side won't win you the quidditch cup, Potter," Lyra snapped. "In fact, it might lose you your good hand."

"You're terrifying, Black," Harry smirked as he looked the waif-like girl up and down. "I don't think you could take me in a duel, frankly."

"I did last year," Lyra said. "Just let me get to the dungeons. Shouldn't you be scared that I'm going to-"

"If you had any idea where Sirius Black was, and if you really were working with him," Harry cut her off, "You'd have done it by now."

"Says you," Lyra put her hands on her hips.

"Yeah," Harry shrugged. "Says me. Besides, I don't buy your big-scary-Slytherin act." Lyra rolled her eyes.

"Let me _through_, Potter."

"Make me," Harry challenged. Lyra pulled her wand out of her pocket.

"_Impedimenta_," She said quietly. Harry fell backwards and Lyra pocketed her wand once more. As she stepped over his body, she proceeded to skip down the halls until she got to the dungeon steps where she ran into Pansy Parkinson. Lyra wished she was invisible as Pansy's icy gaze looked her over with a sneer. The fellow Slytherin brushed past her, and Lyra descended into the common room. She murmured the password and checked the noticeboard for any update. Password was to change tomorrow and- finally! The first weekend trip to Hogsmeade! Only two weeks away, Lyra thought giddily as she rushed to go get a change of clothes.

* * *

_**Hogwarts' Castle, October 31st, 1993**_

Lyra, Daphne and Tracey, still warm with butterbeer, made their way arm and arm with bags filled of Honeydukes sweets towards the Slytherin common room. They had spent the day exploring the magical village and telling ghost stories outside of the Shrieking Shack. It had been one of the better days thus far for the year. After depositing the day's purchases onto their beds in the dormitory, the girls headed towards the Great Hall for the Halloween feast.

"Did you _see_ what Blaise was wearing?" Daphne whispered across the table. "I thought he looked just _dreamy_."

"Dreamy isn't the right word for it," Tracey laughed. "Dreamy is Loony Lovegood over in Ravenclaw... Blaise looked positively..._ Regal_."

Lyra ignored them both as she studied her books from the village bookstore. They had all sorts of ancient copies of things she'd only heard legends about. As she sifted through the yellowed pages, she only tuned in for parts of Tracey and Daphne's banter, though she appreciated it all the same. After the delicious dinner and entertainment from the ghosts, the girls headed back towards the Slytherin common room.

They had just gotten settled in the common room, when Professor Snape made an announcement that they were all to go to the Great Hall. The prefects organized lines, or at least they tried, but every student was in such a jumble of confusion that when Professor Snape grabbed Lyra tightly by the arm and pulled her from the line, neither Tracey nor Daphne noticed.

"Did you let him in? Have you seen him?" Professor Snape growled in a tone that she'd only ever heard him use with Gryffindors and Hufflepuffs before.

"Who?" Lyra asked, trying to ignore the pain his fingers were inflicting on her bicep as he glowered at her.

"Don't play the fool with me, girl," Snape hissed. "Sirius Black was spotted in the castle tonight." As his black eyes studied her reaction, immediate shock like a physical blow, his grip softened.

"He's here," Lyra whispered. She didn't even have time to be hurt that Snape had accused her of letting him in, because suddenly her head was spinning. "He's..."

The tension that had developed in Snape's spine since Peeves' confession lessened slightly. However, no teacher was certain whether or not Black was still in the school. A thought occurred to Snape as he watched Lyra process what had just happened.

"Lyra," He said urgently. "Lyra, I need you to look at me..."

Her glazed over blue eyes lifted to his.

"If you see him," He whispered in a hushed tone, bending down to look her straight in the eye, "You point your wand at him, and you say _sectumsempra_, do you understand me? And then you run."

"Sectumsemper?" Lyra struggled over her words. She shook her head and licked her lips trying to ameliorate her annunciation, "Sectum-"

"Sempra," Snape said. "Sectumsempra. He is the _only_ person you can use that against, are we clear? You say those words, and you run as fast as you can to find me or Professor Dumbledore. Don't think of anyone else, just get yourself to safety... Er- and if he's close, grab Potter..."

She didn't reply. She just stared, catatonically, trying to understand what had happened, what was happening. Her entire body felt like it was either going to cave in on itself or start to tremble terribly.

"Lyra," Snape said, sounding more desperate. "Do you understand? Did you hear what I just said?"

"Sirius Black..." Lyra repeated. "He's-"

"Lyra, what do you do if you see him?"

"Wand, _sectumsempra_, run," Lyra swallowed. Snape pat her on the shoulder, and then grabbed her wrist again. He dragged her towards the Great Hall, weaving in and out of the various houses that blocked his way. Without another word, he left her standing not too far from Hermione, Ron

* * *

Harry in the midsts of the various students.

Lyra watched his black robes billow away. She heard voices around her, but all she could think was that all of her jokes about using that terrible man as a weapon might come true without her asking for them to. Suddenly, that reality didn't seem comedic. It seemed completely and utterly terrifying. She sat down on one of the sleeping bags that Professor Dumbledore had conjured and wrapped a spare blanket around herself. Neither Tracey nor Daphne had come to look for her, so she simply leaned against a spare bit of wall as soon as the lights went out.

"_D'you think it was__ her__?" "It can't have been, she was at Hogsmeade all day." "Says who? I never saw her. It was definitely her." _

"_I heard from Hannah Abbott who heard from Cho Chang, who heard from Pansy Parkinson, who's in __her__ house that she threatened Potter AND Malfoy with her dad. More than once."_

He wasn't her dad, Lyra thought to herself. He was her father, biologically, sure, but he was not her _dad_. He hadn't tucked her in, ever. He never read her any Babbity Rabbity. He'd never kissed her scrapes, taught her to fly... He was a useless dad, as far as she was concerned.

Then, a voice spoke out that surprised her...

"All of you just shut it," Harry Potter's voice said to the gossiping students across from him. "She was _joking_ about it. Obviously she didn't let him into the castle. Besides, he can't like her all that much if he was trying to break into the Gryffindor tower before he went to see her, so why would he trust her to help him?"

Lyra hadn't thought of that yet. She hadn't even considered the potential that Sirius Black didn't care that he was related to her. Harry's words, even if they had gotten some of the nasty voices to stop, stung. Sirius Black probably wouldn't trust her. Professor Snape hadn't, and he was her head of house.

* * *

**A/N: I'm really enjoying writing this because it's given me the chance to re-read Prisoner of Azkaban and remember all my favourite parts. Oh, and of course, rearrange them to involve Lyra in someway. Just for the record, I'm such a pedant about this that I actually had to figure out Lyra's timetable just to work out that I think only _certain_ classes are split between houses (Herbology, Potions and Electives) whereas Transfiguration and DADA don't seem to be? Ha, anyway, that's a thing! :) Thank you for reading! Hope you enjoyed this chapter! More to come. xo, Sophie**

**PS: ****Feel free to review, you beautiful people! Feedback and comments are totally 100% appreciated. :)**


	5. Destroyer

**A/N: Sorry for the wait! Thank you so much for all of your feedback and your positive reactions! Your support of this story means a lot to me. Every time I get a new follower or review I feel like a million little puppies are cuddling me! :) I'm really, really excited for some of the parts of this story that are coming up. I recently just wrote Sirius meeting Lyra for the first time. Just imagine the look on his face when he sees her green and silver. ;) **

**Without further ado, here is moreeee! xo**

* * *

_**November 5th, 1993**_

Since the search of the castle, even Daphne Greengrass and Tracey Davis had kept their distance from Lyra. Cassius, who had joked with her about him, was suddenly refusing to look her in the eye. Marcus Flint even postponed their usual game against Gryffindor for seemingly no reason. It wasn't until the weather turned into horrific windy downpour that Lyra considered not _everyone_'s behaviour had to do with her. As she paced the school corridors, alone again, she felt a strange mix of loneliness that she'd only ever felt a few times before.

"Hey," An all too familiar, rather annoying voice said from behind her. "What's this I hear about Slytherin canceling our match because of Malfoy's arm?"

Lyra turned and looked at Harry Potter, with his disheveled hair and lightning scar.

"Yeah, well," Lyra rolled her eyes. "Can't play Quidditch with an injured seeker."

"His arm is _fine_," Harry snarled. Lyra let out a huff of air through her nostrils and kept walking through the stone halls.

"Yes, _I_ know," Lyra snapped. "What do you want, Potter?"

"Just curious; it wasn't really you who let him into the castle was it?" Harry's question made her stop dead in her tracks. She pulled out her wand and spun on her heel. Her blue eyes could have froze entire oceans with the cool, calculating stare that Harry received.

"It was a joke!" Harry lifted his hands in the air to show surrender. "Honestly, you Slytherins need to learn not to take things so seriously." Lyra simply stepped forward, with one of her eyebrows arched high on her forehead.

"You don't _joke_ with me, Potter," Lyra growled. "I'll ask you again, what do you want?"

"Listen, I was just asking," Harry pushed her wand out of his face hesitantly. "No need to get so defensive, Black."

"Shouldn't you be in training? Or being supervised, serving detention, or whatever it is you Gryffindors do after class," Lyra put her wand back into her robe pockets and folded her arms.

"Mister Potter," Professor McGonagall's voice suddenly called from the other end of the hall. "Is there a problem? Why are you out of the Common Room?" Lyra turned to face her and could have sworn that the stern Transfiguration Mistress' frown deepened.

"No problem at all, Professor," Lyra said. "I was just on my way to the library."

"Very well, hurry along," McGonagall swept her arm to her side and ushered the girl away. She gave Harry a discerning look and gave him a warning that could not be mistaken as she walked past. _That is the enemy's daughter_.

* * *

_**November 6th, 1993**_

_Dearest Lyra,_

_Professor Dumbledore told us about the break in at the castle. He doesn't blame you at all, and I think it's important you know that. Ted and I are very worried about you. We haven't heard from you in a while, and would like to ask that you start writing more frequently, love. I know it must be very difficult for you at school. I too was a Slytherin without many friends in my house. I hope you still, at the very least, have Tracey and the Greengrass girl. If not, try to reach out to someone in another house. Ravenclaws and Hufflepuffs are often the most understanding. _

_Don't shut yourself in, my girl, but most importantly: don't spend elongated periods alone. I've requested that the teachers keep a closer eye on you, but it seems that you aren't _his_ primary target. Never the less, take care of yourself. _

_All my love,_

_Aunt Andromeda_

* * *

_**August 9th, 1986**_

_"Where's Ly?" Ted asked Dora who had Lyra's blonde hair and similar nose on her face for once. _

_"She's in the stairwell, won't come out," Dora said. "Not even when I told her I looked like her." "Leave me alone!" Her little squeaky voice came out from behind the wall. "You're not my real family!" _

_"Oh, hooo!" Ted chuckled. "On to that again, are we, little miss?" He exchanged an amused look with Tonks before he walked over and leaned up against the wall. _

_"I don't want to go play with Ernie and Justin!" Lyra shouted back."They're mean and smelly and— You can't make me because you're not my real daddy!" _

Watch this_, Ted mouthed to his eldest daughter with a cheeky smile. _

_"So I don't read you bed time stories?" He smirked as there was no response. "What about when you have a bad dream, Ly? Do 'Dromeda and I let you sleep in our bed?" _

_"Yeaaaah…" Lyra grumbled. _

_"So what do you think a real daddy does, little lamb?" There was silence, and then the sound of her little feet stomping down the stairs. Her pretty, pouting blonde head stood in front of him with folded arms._

_"But we don't have the same last name!" She said sternly. "And we don't have the same blood." _

_"Now who went and told you that that has anything to do with being a real daddy?" Ted leaned down and lifted her into his arms. She didn't struggle against it; she just leaned her head on his shoulder. "You're our girl, Lyra Cassiopeia. Just as much as Dora is. No matter what." He kissed her temple and smiled at Dora who was now grinning._

_"And you should count yourself lucky that they didn't get to name you!" Dora quipped. Lyra giggled a little and buried her face in Ted's shoulder._

_"That's a girl," He said gently._

* * *

_**November 9th, 1993**_

"Lyra," Professor Lupin, who had just returned from his absence the week before, stopped her before she left her last class of the day with him. "Can I have a word?"

"Why?" Lyra asked as politely as she could muster. She shifted from side to side and pushed her blonde hair behind her ears. "Have I done something wrong, Professor?"

"No," Lupin smiled slightly. "On the contrary, I was simply wondering how you're doing after the fright of Halloween?"

Lyra glanced around the room and licked her lips. She didn't want to tell this man she'd only just met that she was miserable. She didn't want to tell him that her best friends had stopped talking to her, that she was suspected as being responsible by just about everyone, even her head of house... She felt her eyes start to sting and looked up at the ceiling to try and make them stop.

"I'm doing just fine, Professor," Lyra said shakily. "Thanks."

"You should know that not a single staff member suspects you," Professor Lupin said gently.

"Except Professor Snape," Lyra said bitterly. "I heard him talking in the Great Hall... And all my housemates. They're all sure it's me."

Lyra studied the young professor's scarred face as he started to put his supplies away in his bag. He turned and met her blue eyes with his amber ones. He had to blink a few times as he took in the sight of her. She looked so much like her mother had at that age, all pouting lips and blonde hair. Her eyes were paler than Marlene's had been, but that was the only resemblance to Sirius Black that he could find in her.

"Well, I'm sure that it isn't you," Professor Lupin said. "You don't have to be your parents... Your-" He stopped himself. He was going to say, _your father knew that better than anyone_, but thought better of it. "You don't have to be defined by them."

"It's a bit hard when one of them's a martyr and the other is a murderer," Lyra said.

"If I might be so bold as to tell you something your mother once said," Professor Lupin said.

"You may," Lyra replied with as much authority in her voice as teachers used when speaking to students. Her tone made Lupin smile.

"Thank you," He chuckled a little. "Well, she used to say that the best witches and wizards were brave enough to define themselves without the help of their parents."

"What if I'm not brave?" Lyra said. "What if I'm shrewd?"

"Then you have the ability to make the judgement whether or not you'd like to be anything like your father," Lupin said. "And I believe you know what the right choice is."

Lyra looked at him, her eyes calmly sussing him up for what he was worth, and whether or not he was someone she could trust. After calculating her options, she swallowed and said, "Respectfully, professor, I'm not sure you've known me long enough to _believe_ anything about me."

"Respectfully, Lyra," Professor Lupin raised an eyebrow and said, "I think you'd be surprised. Now, hurry along then. I've kept you long enough."

Lyra narrowed her eyes at him and turned on her heel. She was never sure how much she liked this teacher. Professor Snape had made him out to be some villain, but he was an excellent Professor when he showed up to class. On her way to the Great Hall for dinner, she nearly ran into the three Gryffindors she disliked most. She slowed her pace so that they wouldn't notice her walking behind them. They chattered away about Harry's terrifying experience on the Quidditch pitch the Friday before, and Lyra wished she didn't have to listen to Granger's worries about her friends. Her voice just seemed to rub Lyra exactly the wrong way.

* * *

_**November 15th, 1993**_

_Dear Dora,_

_Do you ever sort of wonder where teachers get off? I mean, this new DADA professor... He keeps having things really meaningful conversations with me about my mother and how my life is all about my choices. Did you ever have teachers act this way with you? _

_How is auror training going, by the way? I hope Mad-Eye is treating you well. _

_Love,_

_Lyra_

* * *

_**November 20th, 1993**_

Lyra had gotten used to being left alone. First years were generally terrified of her, from all houses, because of the colour of her scarf and the way that Draco Malfoy had gotten everyone in Slytherin house going about how terrible she was. Gryffindors gave her exceptionally dirty looks, as they'd taken to blaming her for the fact that their beloved seeker's broom had been wrecked by the Whomping Willow when the dementor's had gotten too close to the quidditch pitch. After all, if her father hadn't been running around on the loose, there wouldn't be dementors at Hogwarts anyway. Apart from quidditch practice, where she was mostly ignored and overlooked while running drills, Lyra had started to lead a very solitary life.

She sat in a quiet corner of the castle that evening, by the courtyard, listening to the cool rain pound against the stone walls around her. She did her homework there, because Madame Pince got awfully frustrated by the whispers that followed Lyra into the library. She scribbled out a scroll for Charms, and hummed herself a song that Andromeda used to sing to her when she was a little girl. Lyra was so enthralled in this that she almost didn't notice Professor Lupin making walking down the hall, chatting with Harry Potter.

"Your mother was an exceptionally kind woman, Harry," Professor Lupin's voice carried down the hall. "She had a way of seeing the best in people."

Lyra immediately jerked up and hastily put away her homework things. _Don't notice me, don't notice me_. She struggled to her feet and started to walk down the hall.

"Ah, Miss Black!" Lupin's voice made her freeze in her steps. She let out a soft groan for having been noticed and then plastered on a smile on her face as she turned to face her Professor.

"Hello, Professor Lupin," Lyra said, "and Potter."

"I was just talking to Harry about his mother, Lily," Lupin smiled as though he had the perfect segue to force her into this conversation, "Did you know that your mother and Harry's mother were close friends in their Hogwarts days?" And he _did_ have the perfect segue, Lyra thought grumpily.

"They _were_?" Harry said. He seemed shocked. He glanced over at Lyra, whose mouth hung open with as much surprise apparent in her face as in Harry's words. Lyra looked over at Harry and closed her mouth quickly. She straightened her shoulders and put on her polite smile once more.

"I hadn't heard that, Professor," Lyra said sweetly. "My godmother prefers the stories of my mother's bravery during the first war, sir."

"My mum was plenty brave," Harry said defensively. "She sacrificed herself for me!" Lyra pursed her lips. She couldn't spin on her heel as she would have done any other time, as a professor had started the interaction.

"I could gladly tell you stories about them in their school days," Professor Lupin looked as though he was trying to contain his joy at the prospect of reliving his own days at school. "At least, as much as I can remember about it..."

Lyra bit the insides of her cheeks. She desperately wanted to know about her mother. Andromeda had such limited information. She had heard the story of Marlene McKinnon's defiance of You-Know-Who and the way that she had died protecting a very important secret. Apart from letting Lyra know that, despite how brave she may be, her mother had more regard for other lives than her own, it wasn't sufficient for the growing thirst of knowledge about her parents.

That said, she didn't want to know anything if it meant finding out that she and Harry _freaking_ Potter were supposed to be best mates just like their parents or something of the like. For Merlin's sake, her father was the reason his parents were dead. She hardly thought that was a functional friendship waiting to happen. Let alone the elephant in the room known as house rivalry.

Lyra glanced between Professor Lupin and Harry, unable to say anything.

"I'd love to know more," Harry said for her. His emerald eyes glanced over at her, and she simply nodded weakly.

Professor Lupin beamed. He walked the pair of them down the hall, and told them stories about how Lily Evans defended victims from bullies. He told them about how Marlene McKinnon was brash, outspoken and daring. How the pair of them were two of the most beautiful girls at Hogwarts as far as he and his mates were concerned, and that they had the ability to leave anyone speechless in a matter of minutes, simply from playing off one another with witty remarks and carefully constructed cut-downs.

"And my mother, she was a Gryffindor?" Lyra inquired softly during a pause in the stories. Professor Lupin nodded.

"Ha," Harry scoffed. "How'd you end up a Slytherin then? Take after your dad, do you?"

"Actually," Lyra said through clenched teeth. "He was a Gryffindor, too, you priggish lion."

"You know," Professor Lupin said to cut off Harry before he had a chance to reply, "I think the two of you would get along if only you could look past your respective house colours."

Lyra and Harry turned to look at the Professor and then at each other. As Harry and Lyra began to talk over one another and squabble about why it was that they were _not_ similar at all, Lupin pinched the bridge of his nose and let out a sigh. Perhaps McGonagall had been right. Perhaps it was best to simply keep the pair of them away from one another except when it was necessary to punish them.

* * *

_**November 30th, 1993**_

_Darling Lyra,_

_We haven't heard from you in a while. I hope you haven't forgotten all about us now that you're back at Hogwarts and exploring Hogsmeade all by yourself, young lady. We haven't received any notice from Professor Dumbledore or Professor Snape to let us know you're wreaking havoc on that poor Potter boy, but that doesn't exactly quell our fears._

_When you have a moment, love, do write us. We miss you! Can't wait to see you at Christmas._

_Lots of love,_

_Uncle Ted_

* * *

_**December 14th, 1993**_

As Lyra left the Slytherin common room, wrapped up in her winter cloak with her silver and green scarf wrapped around her neck at least three times, wearing a knitted hat that Andromeda had made for her last Christmas, and a pair of green leather gloves that Tonks had found in Diagon Alley for her, she blatantly ignored all of the whispers that followed her around. Lyra was on a mission. She was going to get all of her Christmas shopping done in Hogsmeade today, and she was not going to let any staring, or malicious jokes about her parentage get her down.

As she made her way towards Hogsmeade, weaving in and out of the groups of people who gave her as much space as she so desired out of fear or something like it, Lyra decided that nothing could ruin her day.

It wasn't until she was at the Three Broomsticks, sitting at a table, penning a letter to Ted and Andromeda that her mood was ruined. Someone bumped into her table and spilled ink all over her parchment and onto her lap.

"Hey!" Lyra leapt up and glared at none other than Harry Potter: the boy who lived, but was most certainly _not_ supposed to be here.

"Oh, er... Sorry," Harry said quickly. Behind him, Granger and Weasley shot her daggers with their eyes.

"Whatever," Lyra grumbled. "_Scourgify_." The ink cleared itself up, and she glared right back at the muggleborn and Weasley.

"Er, listen, I'm not really supposed to be here, so if you could just... Er..." Harry rubbed the back of his neck.

"Potter," Lyra said. "I'm not a Hufflepuff. I don't believe in being fair."

"Thanks," He broke into a grin. "Um, another thing... Is it alright if we-"

"Harry, we'll find somewhere else to sit, it's _fine_," Granger hissed. Lyra looked between the freckled redhead and the frizzy-haired buck-toothed girl. She looked around the crowded pub.

"Doesn't look like you have much of a choice," Lyra shrugged. "Sit here on the condition that I won't bother you if you don't bother me."

"Alright," they grumbled in response. Weasley left and returned with three tankards of butterbeer.

"None for me?" Lyra said dryly, before she remembered that she wasn't friends with them, nor did she have any right to joke around with them. Much to her surprise, however, Ron Weasley begrudgingly headed back to the bar and got another tankard of butterbeer. He thumped it down in front of her and immediately started to ignore her.

"Thanks," Lyra whispered as she sipped the butterbeer and felt a dull ache as she looked over and saw Daphne, Blaise and Tracey all chatting happily with Theodore Nott.

"What did you do today? Black?" Harry asked. Lyra was so caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't register that anyone had remembered she still existed. Lyra turned to face the expectant, if grumpy, faces that surrounded her.

"Me?" Lyra blinked. "Oh, er... Nothing, really. I just... Shopping for my godparents..."

Another uncomfortable silence fell over the table. They sipped their butterbeers and avoided each other's eyes.

"So... Quidditch," Ron said loudly. "Looks like Slytherin's got to beat Ravenclaw, eh?"

"Yeah," Lyra nodded as she sipped her butterbeer. "Looks like..."

"How are you finding Muggle Studies?" Hermione asked. The table beside them left. Madame Rosmerta cleared it up as the awkward small-talk continued.

"I like it," Lyra said. "I find it fascinating... What's it like for you? You know, being muggleborn." Hermione narrowed her eyes suspiciously at her.

"Muggleborn?" Hermione repeated. Harry and Ron stared at her with

"Yeah," Lyra blinked. "What? What's wrong with that? Is there something you'd prefer to be known as?" She suddenly flushed. Maybe there was a new, more correct way of saying it that she'd forgotten or hadn't learned. No matter how irritating Granger could be, she had never intended to insult her.

"No, I just..." Hermione took a sip. "I wasn't expecting you to use that one. Your cousin doesn't..."

"Oh..." Lyra said softly. The table fell quiet. They all stared into their empty butterbeer tankards and then the door swung open, "Potter... You're not supposed to be here, yeah?"

"Er- no, I'm not, why?" Harry turned around and saw who had just entered the pub. Without another word, Hermione and Ron had pushed him under the table. Lyra watched, panicked, as Professor McGonagall, Flitwick, Hagrid and the Minster of Magic, Cornelius Fudge walked to the table beside theirs. Hermione enchanted a Christmas tree to hide them from sight. The three of them sat frozen, with Harry squished uncomfortably between their legs and the leg of the table.

"_What do we do_?" Lyra mouthed to Hermione as she gestured beneath the table. Hermione just gestured to her lips with her finger and they listened in as the Minster of Magic and Professor McGonagall started discussing dementors and Sirius Black. Lyra shifted uncomfortably in her seat.

"I still can't believe it," They heard Madam Rosmerta's voice say. "You know... Plenty of people went bad the last time around, but Sirius Black..." Lyra cringed. She kept her eyes away from the two Gryffindors across from her. "Sirius Black was the last I'd expect... When he was a boy at Hogwarts... If you had told me what he'd become, I'd have cut you off."

Lyra's bottom lip started to tremble. She wished she could escape, but as it were she couldn't move without drawing unnecessary attention to the table.

"You have no idea, Rosmerta," The Minsiter of Magic said. "He is a truly dark man... The worst thing he did... Not many know."

Lyra knew. Her heart pounded in her chest as she thought of Harry sitting beneath the table. If only she could apparate. If only she had an invisibility cloak or some secret passage out of this situation...

"What could be worse than murdering all of those innocent people?" Madame Rosmerta said. Lyra could feel Hermione and Ron's eyes on her as she sat across from them.

"Don't you remember who his best friend was?" Professor McGonagall murmured. Lyra twitched her foot up and down compulsively until Harry grabbed it with one of his hands to stop it.

"How could I forget," Rosmerta said. "You never saw one without the other... I lost count of how many times those boys were in here, making me laugh... They were a double act, they were, that Sirius Black and James Potter."

Hermione's head jerked up to Lyra who was biting her bottom lip so hard that a bit of blood was trickling out of it, and staining her teeth. She had tears welling in her blue eyes as she stared at the ceiling. Hermione turned to Ron who gaped at her.

"Exactly," McGonagall said morosely. "Black and Potter. Ring leaders of that little gang they had. Very bright, but the main reason my hair is going gray today... no doubt."

"You'd have thought they were brothers," Professor Flitwick's high pitched squeak chimed in. "Black and Potter were inseparable."

"And they trusted each other," Cornelius Fudge said. "James Potter trusted Black beyond all of his other friends... He was the best man at the wedding. He was Harry's godfather, just as James was his daughter's... What's her name again?"

Lyra froze. _That_ she hadn't known.

"Lyra," Professor McGonagall said. "Lyra's guardians let the school know she was aware of her bloodline before the start of term. I don't think either of them have a clue about the friendship however..."

"The poor children," mused Madam Rosmerta. "Are they close, Minerva?"

"Ha!" Hagrid chortled. "Now there's a Potter an' Black who can do wi'out one another."

As the story of Sirius Black's betrayal continued on, Hermione and Ron's stares turned near contemptuous to the blonde Slytherin sitting across from them. Lyra was trembling. She hadn't heard the whole story, not all of the gory details... The blood, the laughter, the madness. Tears had started to pour down her cheeks before she could stop them. As the teachers and Minister of Magic left, Lyra leapt from her seat and pushed past them before they could say anything to her. She ran as fast as she could back to the castle and pressed herself against a wall, shaking with sobs.

"_He was laughing with a heap of bloodstained robes and a few fragments of Pettigrew strewn in front of him_..."

The Minster of Magic's voice echoed around her head. She wasn't hungry enough to head to dinner. She clenched her eyes shut and covered her face with her hands.

"Lyra?" Professor Snape said as he approached the crying girl. "What's the matter?"

"H-he w-w-was their friend... H-he was..." Lyra sobbed. "I _hate_ him! I HATE HIM!"

Snape didn't have to ask who she was talking to. As she lowered her hands from her swollen, red eyes and wet cheeks, Lyra let out a pathetic, blubbering sob.

"I want him dead," Lyra whimpered. "I want him to be dead... I wish he was dead, Professor... I-instead of Harry's parents... I wish... I wish it was h-h-him!"

In that moment, Professor Snape felt truly empathetic towards the young girl. He understood exactly how she felt. He too hated Sirius Black. He too wished that he was dead instead of James and Lily Potter. Without another word, he placed his hand on Lyra's shoulder and let her fall forward into his chest. He pat her on the back and let her cry for a moment. Internally, he swore to himself that he'd grant her wish if he got the chance.

* * *

**A/N: To clarify a couple of things: I was adopted by my godparents at a relatively awkward age, so I knew both my biological parents and adoptive parents as such. Lyra's experience with Ted and Andromeda is going off the idea that they were always honest with her about being adopted, but not so much about Sirius. ('Cause let's be honest, being adopted is hard enough without having to find out that your dad's a terrible human being as far as anyone knows.) I imagine her just being a little shit and using the "You're not my real dad/mom" as often as she can to get away with stuff. Anyway, adoption and family is always a complex topic, and this is mostly based off of my personal experience with it, which is probably not at all in any way accurate because it's a pretty special case; just like Lyra's. Hope that made sense and wasn't too ramble-y!**

** So what do you guys think? Pleeeease feel free to review and let me know! You guys are the greatest! Thanks so much again and again for your support.**

**xo, Sophie**


	6. Not With Haste

_**Christmas Day, 1993**_

Ted, Dora and Andromeda had all taken turns trying to coax Lyra out of her bedroom. She had spent the majority of her time home moping about the house or hiding in her room. Dora had even tried to get her to come outside and build an enchanted snowman with her, which normally got her out of the house with a grin on her face in three seconds flat... However, the mood she was in was so truly disheartening that not even snowmen could cheer her up.

"Lyra Cassiopeia! It is Christmas Day!" Andromeda put on her stern mother voice. "You will come out of your room, open your presents, and damn well be happy about it!"

Lyra put the pillow over her head to cover her tear-stained face as her godmother burst through the door. She had wrapped all of their presents last night, but hadn't had the heart to put them under the tree. Since hearing the teachers talk in the Three Broomsticks, Lyra had been inconsolable. Her entire body ached from crying so much. She had no idea that she could hate someone so much until she had started to feel this sickening, churning resentment build up in her gut. The fact that it was towards someone that comprised a part of her made it even worse.

Andromeda looked at the girl with her face covered with a pillow and her nails chewed to the bed. She let out a sigh and crawled onto the bed next to her.

"It's about him, isn't it?" Andromeda said gently. Lyra opened her mouth to say something, but all that came out was a sad whine. "Oh, darling..." She moved the pillow from Lyra's face and saw her salt-eaten skin from tears. "Oh, my girl..."

Andromeda pulled Lyra into her arms and held her there. She kissed Lyra's blonde head and squeezed her tightly. Andromeda knew how she was feeling. It was a bitter rage towards her blood that Andromeda knew too well. When she had chosen to marry Ted against her family's wishes, when she had listened to their ranting diatribe about muggles and wizarding-superiority, when she had put up with Bella and Cissy... Andromeda had spent the good part of her wedding night in a state not too dissimilar to the one in which Lyra was now.

"You know what we've always said to you, that you're our girl no matter your blood, that still counts," Andromeda whispered. "You know I love you. We love you."

Lyra let out another sad cry and she buried her face into Andromeda's chest.

"When I was your age," Andromeda said. "I met a muggleborn Hufflepuff named Edward after my sister hexed him so badly he was put in the hospital wing for a week... I felt terribly. People blamed me for Bella's actions... I didn't agree with her reasoning behind it, and I didn't condone it. That was the first rift between my family and me, Lyra... I stood up for a muggleborn, and it broke my heart to see the contempt in my sister's eyes as she looked at me for the rest of my life." Lyra didn't respond; she just listened. Andromeda combed Lyra's hair with her fingers and continued on, "But do you know who that boy, Edward, ended up being?"

"No," Lyra said in a hoarse voice.

"Well, I'll give you a hint," Andromeda smiled. "In seventh year, he had finally mustered up the courage to ask me on a date to Hogsmeade where he told me I had the most amazing smile... He made me laugh so hard I teared up. He was clumsy, and kind, and after a few more dates, I was certain that he was the most amazing man I'd ever met."

Lyra smiled a little as she listened to Andromeda's heartbeat.

"It's Uncle Ted, isn't it?" Lyra said. Andromeda laughed and nodded. Lyra propped herself up on her elbows and looked at her godmother. "Your sister sounds as bad as my father."

"She was," Andromeda said with a sudden sadness crossing over her face. "She ended up in Azkaban as well..."

Neither of them said anything more. There was a pause and then Andromeda said chirpily, "Well, let's go open presents then, shall we?"

* * *

_**January 7th, 1994**_

The first dinner back after Christmas break ended with a commotion. Lyra had resolved to apologize to Harry as soon as she was back, to clear her conscience. As she approached the mess of untidy black hair, spectacles and a lightning bolt scar, her stomach sank as she saw the contempt with which he regarded her. She opened her mouth to say sorry, but before she could, Harry was jumping down her throat.

"Trying to get close to me, Black? Become my mate and then betray me like your dad did mine?"

"Well, that's just presumptuous," Lyra scoffed. She immediately reached for her wand and kept her hand there just in case. "Why on earth would I want to be your mate? That seems like a lot of effort for nothing."

"He was their _friend_!" Harry shouted. "My parents are dead because of him! And you walk around like your some martyr because no one will talk to you! At least you're not an orphan because of him! At least you don't hear your mother screaming before her death every time dementors are around, because of _him_!"

Lyra had cried out the last of her tears over Christmas break. Instead of tears welling in her eyes, she felt white hot rage pooling in her veins.

"Watch your tongue, Potter," Lyra snapped. Her wand was out and pointed at him.

"Going to defend him now, Black?" Harry sneered as he took out his own wand."You were crying about it last I-"

"_Expelliarmus!_" Lyra cried sending Harry's wand flying. "Don't you _ever_ accuse me of defending that man, you smug prat! Just because your parents were daft enough to trust him doesn-"

"DON'T CALL MY PARENTS DAFT!" Harry shouted. "THEY WERE BRAVER THAN BOTH OF YOUR PARENTS COMBINED! AND YOUR GUARDIANS!"

"Leave them out of this," Lyra said in a dangerously low voice. Her blue eyes narrowed and her wand arm dropped to her side. "I'm warning you..."

"What'll you do, Black?" Harry growled. "Blow me up like your dad did to _his friend, _Peter Pettigrew? And those twelve helpless muggles?" He stepped closer to her, "Or maybe you've learned a few tricks from your other family? You know, Draco's aunty Andromed-"

A smack resonated through the air as Lyra's hand made contact with Harry's cheek. He stepped back, looking shocked, but Lyra balled up her fist and let another hit fly. It knocked off his glasses. Harry stood astonished, unsure of what he could do, as Lyra lunged forward to attack him again. Just as it looked like she was about to scratch his eyes out, Lyra froze in the air. Professor McGonagall stood with her wand out, looking sternly at the pair of them. She placed Lyra to the side with magic and unfroze her.

"I'm not looking for an explanation," McGonagall tutted. "I will simply deduct twenty points, and grant a week's detention."

"Ha," Harry scoffed at Lyra.

"For the _both_ of you," McGonagall finished with one eyebrow raised above her head.

* * *

_**The Trophy Room, January 10th, 1994**_

Lyra and Harry were polishing opposite sides of the trophy room in silence. The only sound that could be heard was Mrs. Norris licking her paws and the trophy's starting to squeak from being polished. It had been three nights of silence after classes where they had been doing nothing but ignoring each other and keeping to their respective sides of the trophy room.

"Oh, look," Harry said dryly after a moment. "I found your dad's name on one." Lyra didn't respond, she kept polishing. "World's Biggest Twat. Sounds about right."

"Mm, and here's your dad here," Lyra replied. She sounded equally as bored until she realized she actually was looking at something labeled James Potter, "...Head boy."

"What?" Harry spun around. "I was joking, are you joking?"

"James Potter, Head Boy, 1977-1978," Lyra read. She turned and looked over her shoulder at Harry and shrugged. "Not joking."

Harry dropped his polishing rag and scrambled over to her. He looked at the trophy in awe.

"Wow," Harry breathed. Lyra watched Harry as he sunk back onto his heels from his knees. He looked like he might break out into prayer. Instead, he stared at the trophy with his dad's name on it and looked as though he might cry. His cheekbone was a little bruised from where Lyra had hit him. She felt a bit guilty really.

"I'm sorry," Lyra said quietly. "For everything. For my father. For your parents. For hitting you..."

"You're sorry for hitting me?" Harry turned to her. Lyra thought about that for a moment and then smiled cheekily.

"No, actually," She giggled. "I'm not. I think the bruise gives you a bit more of a reputation to uphold. I just think it's kind of lousy that you never got to know your parents... But you live with your aunt and uncle, right?"

"Yeah," Harry said bitterly. "But they're terrible."

"Oh..." Lyra fell silent.

"What about you? What are your guardians like?" Harry asked.

"The best," She smiled sadly. "They're so accepting and loving and-" Lyra saw the spark of envy flash behind Harry's eyes. "And I feel guilty every day because I've been terrible to them the last little while. I spent most of Christmas crying..."

"Why?" Harry asked cautiously. He stared at her with a confused expression apparent on his face.

"Because," Lyra sighed. "I'm made of half the man who did such terrible things... Only he was in Gryffindor and... I'm in the house where loads of lousy witches and wizards come from... And-and if _he_ went bad, what's stopping me?"

"That's a good question," Harry said. "Tell you what, if you go bad, I'll stop you."

"You're just looking for an excuse to get me back for decking you, aren't you, Potter?"

"Absolutely, Black."

* * *

_**The Trophy Room, January 13th, 1994**_

Lyra was in a particularly foul mood as she started to polish trophies that day. As Harry walked in, he saw her with her hair pulled out of her face, scowling as she scrubbed a particular trophy with such fervor, Harry feared she might break it. He didn't say anything else as he walked over to another trophy cabinet with his bucket and cloths. As Harry started to polish his trophies, Lyra slopped her cloth back into the bucket.

"You know who's an absolute, bloody prick?" She said as she wiped her forehead with the sleeve of her uniform. "Draco Malfoy."

"Er..." Harry turned to face her. He was unsure what to say, "What's happened now?"

"He had Flint boot me off the quidditch team!" Lyra picked up her polishing rag and started polishing again. "They're bringing back some old bruiser who was a lousy chaser last year and- and it's just _ridiculous_ because it's not as though they're going to get anyone who can fly with as much precision as I can... I mean... I'm small, I can just dart in and out and no one ever notices me..." She muttered away as she continued polishing the trophy with quick movements. "_Risk to the team. _I'm the reason we had enough points to beat Ravenclaw before Draco caught the bloody snitch! It's not as if I bloody well faint every time I get near a dem-" Lyra froze. Her blue eyes widened and she turned to Harry, "I didn't think... I'm so sorry."

"It's alright," Harry said quietly. "I'm er... I'm getting lessons from Professor Lupin now so I can defeat them."

"Oh," Lyra said thoughtfully. "That's nice of him."

She placed her polishing rag back into her bucket again and crossed her legs on the floor as she turned to face Harry, "Does Lupin ever say weird things to you?"

"What?" Harry asked. He looked over his shoulder at her. "You mean apart from saying that we're more alike than we give ourselves credit?"

"Yeah," Lyra shrugged. "Like.. The other day after class, he told me some story about my mother and how she used to say that family wasn't defined by blood or whatever and it just seemed a bit moony, really."

"He does that to you too?" Harry chuckled. "I swear, it's like every time he tutors me for dementors he's got another story about my dad..."

"He never talks about _my_ dad," Lyra said dryly. "Can't possibly understand why, great bloke that _daddy_ is..."

Harry burst into unexpected laughter. He hadn't expected her to make a joke at all.

"You're quite funny when you want to be, Black," Harry said.

"I know," She replied haughtily. Harry smiled, unsure about whether or not it was a facade, and then the door opened and Filch peered in at them angrily. After barking at them to start polishing again, he spun around and slammed the door behind him. The two third years gave each other strange looks and giggled a little before they turned back to their trophies.

As they left detention that night, instead of hurrying off in opposite directions, Harry walked Lyra back to the Slytherin dungeon entrance.

"I don't blame you," Harry said quietly as they paused in front of the entrance. "I just wanted to say that... It's not your fault what Sirius Black did."

"Is that why you shouted at me and wound us both up in detention then," Lyra smirked. "Because you _don't_ blame me."

"I was just having a rough day... I found out that Buckbeak was going to be executed and your face was just rubbing me the wrong way," Harry rubbed the back of his neck.

"My face does tend to have that effect on people," Lyra said in the same flat tone she'd used earlier that evening. "Bloody hell, that's Malfoy's fault too, isn't it? Prick. I'm telling you." Harry laughed and shook his head.

"You know, Black," Harry said, "For a serpent, you're not half-bad sometimes."

"Thanks, Potter," Lyra smirked. "Just for the record, I think you smell funny and often act before thinking things through. Just like the rest of you lions. 'Night!"

With that, Lyra disappeared into the dungeons leaving Harry to stand perplexed at how well they had gotten along that night.

* * *

_**January 20th, 1994**_

It had been a week since they'd been forced to be in each other's presence every night. Neither Lyra nor Harry had made any motion to spend any extended periods of time together, though they had shared a few exasperated glances any time Draco said anything stupid in Care of Magical Creatures. However, as Harry struggled with his Undetectable Poisons essay for Professor Snape in the Great Hall, he couldn't help but hear Lyra's voice starting to raise over the chatter.

"Oh, so now you think you're better than me, Tracey?" Lyra shouted. "Because now people can overlook the fact that your dad is a muggle? Don't you remember the way that Pansy used to make you cry every night because of that in first year? Because I do!"

"You don't have to take her flack, Trace," A sickly sweet Pansy Parkinson piped in. "You're with us now!"

"Yeah, _now_," Lyra snapped. "Tracey, who was there for you when your-"

"Just go away, Lyra," Tracey said quietly. "Look, I know you don't get it, but it's just... No one wants to be associated with someone like-"

"Like _me?_" Lyra hissed. "Or like the man who made me? Because we're two _very_ different people! What happened to once a snake, always a snake?"

"That died with the people your father killed in cold blood," Daphne said cooly.

Lyra then did something very brash. She picked up the pitcher of pumpkin juice and tossed its content at the three girls sitting across from where she stood at the Slytherin table. She spun around, grabbed her bag and proceeded to storm out of the Great Hall. On her way out, she ran into Ron Weasley by accident and knocked his books out of his hands.

"Sorry, Weasley," Lyra said stiffly as she leaned down to help him pick them up. She looked over the titles of some of the red-headed Gryffindor stared at her suspiciously.

"Watch where you're going next time," Ron said cooly. Lyra clenched her teeth and looked back at the Slytherin girls who were still doused in pumpkin juice, and no doubt complaining about her.

"Yeah, will do," Lyra grumbled as she darted out of the Great Hall.

As Ron sat down next to Harry, he watched her retreating figure.

"What did you do to Black in detention, mate?" Ron asked as he placed his textbooks down.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"She was nearly nice to me," Ron said in shock. "I mean... _Black_. Lyra Black. The Slytherin daughter of a treacherous murderer?"

"She's not her dad, Ron," Harry replied tartly.

* * *

_**February 3rd, 1994**_

As Lyra sat finishing her Confusing Concoction in double potions, her mind had time to wander while it brewed. She remembered what Madam Rosmerta had said about not expecting Sirius Black to go bad. She thought of how Granger seemingly attended all of her classes even though several overlapped, like Muggle Studies, Arithmancy and Divination. She thought of Tracey and Daphne, how they'd banded together the minute trouble occurred, leaving her out in the cold for fear of what other people thought of them for being seen around her. She thought of Harry, and how he didn't blame her for her father's actions.

"Pssssst, Lyra... Lyraaaaa... Pssssssst," Lyra heard someone hiss in her direction. She turned and saw Harry looking frantically over a fuming cauldron. He waved her over, and she shot him a puzzled look. "_Help!_"

"Is there a problem, Mis_ter_ Potter?" Snape's voice drawled from the front of the room. He turned to look at Lyra who had started to get up from her stool, but slowly sunk back to her seat when she saw his black eyes give her a questioning look.

"No, sir," Harry replied hastily. Snape looked at him discerningly and then turned back to his rounds of checking cauldrons and Lyra hurried over to Harry's side as the plumes of smoke became suddenly darker and more suggestive of impending doom.

"What did you do?" Lyra breathed. Ron and Harry exchanged panicked looks. Ron's cauldron was in a better state. Lyra glanced over to Granger, and then back at the two boys. She felt a sort of smug victory. They'd asked _her_ to help. Maybe it was a problem too big for the know-it-all. Neither of them answered, so Lyra turned to the instructions and then studied the liquid in the cauldron.

"It's not thickening," Harry hissed. Lyra glanced over at Snape and then back to her cauldron. "What did I do?"

"Did you put in as much sneezewort as needed?" Lyra asked. She stirred the water-like liquid with the ladle and looked at the instruction booklet.

"Yeah, I put in the sprig-" Lyra's head shot up.

"You didn't grind it in the mortar? You _idiot_," She shook her head.

"_Miss Black," _Snape snapped. "What is the matter?"

"Potter's potion isn't thickening, sir," Lyra said quickly, before she thought better of it. Ron trod on her foot as she said it. She yelped a little and shot him a dirty look.

"Well, that appears to be Potter's problem, doesn't it, Miss Black?" Snape drawled. "Kindly return to your cauldron, if you would."

"Yes, sir..." Lyra skulked away and looked at her perfectly viscous befuddlement concoction.

* * *

_**Gryffindor Tower, February 6th, 1994**_

Sirius had trouble staying focused as soon as he stepped on a piece of parchment. It made a crinkling noise and he froze in his place, knife in hand. He bent down and picked it up. In the moonlight that streamed in to the window of what was once his favourite place to eat chocolate frogs with James, Peter and Remus; oh, his heart ached at the thought, he made out a loopy cursive writing on the page.

_Potter,_

_Crush Ravenclaw today so that I can watch Malfoy and Flint cry when you beat them, too._

_Black_

Sirius reminded himself to breathe. _Peter_ was in this castle. _Peter_; who had sold out James and Lily, who had ruined his life, who had stripped his family away from him. _Peter _was the reason he was here. But he had images of the two little toddlers that had tugged each other's ears and talked away in baby gibberish on the floor of the cottage in Godric's Hollow. He imagined the young blonde he'd seen running across the lawn towards Hagrid's hut in September, the spitting image of her mother. Marlene... Marlene had been found in pieces while Lyra was with Lily and Harry that day. Marlene... Lyra... Harry... Lily... James... His head started to spin with rage. It was Peter's fault. It was his fault.

_Peter. Peter. Peter._

* * *

_**Slytherin Girls Dormitory, February 6th, 1994**_

"UP! Everyone up!" Snape's voice echoed around the room. Lyra jolted awake with a start and her heart started immediately pounding as she headed downstairs to see Snape, white as a sheet, with Madame Hooch and two security trolls with large clubs in the common room.

"Sirius Black has been inside the castle, he is armed," Snape told all of the sleepy students. Whispers started immediately. All eyes fell on Lyra, in her green pyjamas. She felt cold inside. Armed. Here. People moved around her, shoved her out of the way, shouted, and caused havoc. Professor Snape managed to calm all of the students from their frenzy, but Lyra remained in her silent panic.

After the dormitories had been searched, the students slowly headed back to their rooms. Lyra watched as Professor Snape went to leave for the teacher's chambers, and followed him.

"Professor! It wasn't me," She sounded frantic, desperate for someone to believe her. "I wouldn't let him in! It wasn't me! I-I..."

Snape turned around and looked at her. Her eyes were wide with fright. Her mouth hung open like she was a fish out of water, gasping for air.

"I know," Snape said firmly. "It was never you I suspected. Get some sleep, Lyra."

He turned and exited the common room without another word. Lyra considered heading back up to the dormitory. A year before, when people were being petrified and Malfoy was sneering and sniggering, she had been able to cry to Daphne and Tracey. Now, the thought of having to see them, listen to them, hear them carry on with Pansy Parkison made her sick. Lyra accioed her duvet from the dormitory and curled up on the sofa in the common room. She lay awake that night, looking at the depths of the Black Lake as she listened to the creaks of the castle around her.

Part of her, a scary, dark part of her that she had kept concealed for the better part of her life hoped that maybe Sirius Black would come and find her one of these days. Maybe he still had some vestiges of humanity left in him; the parts of him that might care about a daughter.

* * *

_**The Shrieking Shack, That Night**_

Sirius held the piece of parchment; his daughter's note to his godson. He swore he could smell traces of her; the little baby who smelled like Marlene's vanilla honeysuckle perfume and baby powder. If only he could have seen her for a moment, in the girls' dormitory, but he knew that enchanted staircase too well. He had been so close to her as he snuck in to kill the man he'd been imprisoned for murdering.

Sirius' heart ached. Did Andromeda tell her about him? She kept his name, that much he gathered from the note. What about Marlene? Had she any idea about the kind of woman her mother had been? Or the lullabies she used to sing to her when Lyra was inconsolable? Had Andromeda sung to her? Had Ted read her bedtime stories like he had? Was she loved? Was Harry?

To quell his troubled mind, Sirius changed forms, back into the black dog, and hunkered down on the floor in the Shrieking Shack. He let out a huff through his wet nose and closed his eyes until the morning.

* * *

**A/N: Whenever I think about Sirius hiding out in the Shrieking Shack as Padfoot, I tear up and I get really emotional about it and I just... CAN WE JUST GIVE HIM AND REMUS ALL THE HUGS BECAUSE REALLY. **

**Also: Moony is british slang for crazy/foolish, so I thought that might be a cute pun to make...  
**

**Thank you all so, so, sooooo much for reading this and enjoying it. My wonderful, wonderful readers! You're the best. I really appreciate all of your reviews and input and commentary, soooo please feel free to leave some more! :) Reviews are like Honeydukes chocolate! **


	7. Everybody Knows

**A/N: This one covers a LOOOT of time. Eh. Hope you enjoy it! **

* * *

_**February 11th, 1994**_

"Ready for the latest weird Lupin thing?" Harry said as he jogged to catch up with Lyra as she hurried down the hall.

"That depends," Lyra said quickly. "Will it make me feel better about what happened after the Ravenclaw-Gryffindor match?"

"Might do," Harry shrugged. Lyra looked over at him and let out a sigh.

"You're going to tell me either way, aren't you, Potter?" She said. Harry grinned at her, "Alright, alright... Go on then."

"Right so..."

Harry's long-winded explanation about the Marauder's Map, about Hogsmeade, and being caught by Professors Snape and Lupin had made Lyra see stars. The whole time she'd been concerned that maybe _she _had done something by accident to let that man into the castle, but instead the fault could have been placed on Harry and some stupid magical map that was given to him. By the time his story was finished, about Lupin knowing the map's makers and everything, Lyra stood in silence.

"So, what do you think?" Harry said expectantly.

"You had a map that showed every entrance to the castle and the whereabouts of the inhabitants of the castle," Lyra repeated.

"Yeah," Harry nodded.

"And people think_ I _let him in," She rolled her eyes and snorted. "Why didn't you just bloody well hand it in?"

"...Because it was bloody brilliant," Harry looked at her as if that was the obvious answer. Lyra let out a cool laugh.

"You are such a twat, Potter," Lyra shook her head and ran her fingers through her ponytail. "You said Lupin said he knew the manufacturers?"

"Er... Yeah," Harry rubbed his nose under his glasses. "Why?"

"Who else did Lupin know?" She said. When Harry didn't reply, Lyra rolled her eyes, "Harry, what if Sirius Black was the one who made it? What if it was all a trick?"

"That's not possible," Harry said quickly. "The map was confiscated from whoever made it years ago. Fred and George found it in Filch's secret stash..."

He was beginning to regret telling her anything. There was a long pause. The pair of them stared at each other before they blinked.

"Lupin told you he'd met the manufacturers," Lyra said quietly. "But he also said-"

"How clever our mums were," Harry finished for her. "...No, but that doesn't make sense. The map introduced itself as _Messers_. That's masculine."

"Hmm..." Lyra shrugged. "I don't know then..." They continued walking. As though they had had the same thought at the same time, they exchanged glances.

"What if it's _him_?" Lyra said excitedly.

"Nah," Harry shrugged. "A teacher-type? I don't think so."

The pair of them continued walking to the Great Hall for dinner. Though she didn't understand his aversion to telling professors important secrets that could have kept him safe, Lyra was glad for the company, even if it meant she had to sit beside Weasley and have a Gryffindor scarf, which simply felt _wrong, _draped around her shoulders while she ate that night.

* * *

_**February 15th, 1994**_

_Ly,_

_I've just heard from one of the senior aurors that Sirius Black's been in the castle again. Just checking you haven't done anything brash or bold. Stay safe. Please._

_Mum and dad send their love. I don't think they've received note from Dumbledore yet, but you should probably write them a note to make sure they don't panic._

_All my love,_

_Dora_

* * *

_**February 20th, 1994**_

_Dear Lyra,_

_Remember our agreement before you left for Christmas? At least one letter every two weeks? You haven't been keeping up your end of the deal, little miss. _

_Professor Snape has just sent us word of what happened a few weeks ago. He mentioned that you were safe, and that the break in was not in your part of the castle, but Andromeda wants me to ask you not to go anywhere alone. I happen to agree with her._

_I think it would be best if you started travelling around the castle and grounds in groups. Sirius Black is a very dangerous man, Ly, and I don't think you'll be immune to his attack simply because you're his biological daughter. That would be a very dangerous assumption to make._

_I hope school is going well apart from that. _

_Lots of love,_

_Uncle Ted_

* * *

_**March 1st, 1994**_

_Dear Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted,_

_Things have gotten bad. I've had to start eating at the Gryffindor table, for fear of having things flung at me at my own house. The. Gryffindor. Table. Not even Professor Snape seems to agree with my choice, but he's forgiven me and made some threats to Malfoy, Crabbe and Goyle to lay off with their teasing. _

_There are large pictures of Sirius Black hanging up all over the castle, as though to remind people who he is and not to trust him. I don't see the resemblance, but I suppose I must take after Marlene. _

_It's getting really exhausting being here. I miss home. I miss you both. I miss playing quidditch and having friends in my dormitory who don't enchant my pillows to say nasty things to me. _

_How much longer do I have here?_

_Lyra_

* * *

_**March 10th, 1994**_

Lyra was sitting alone at the very end of the Slytherin table that morning as she read her copy of the Daily Prophet and popped some strawberries into her mouth with her fingers. She was so absorbed in the article that she didn't notice a sheepish Tracey Davis sit across from her.

"Hi..." Tracey squeaked. Lyra looked up and saw Tracey. Her eyes darted back down.

"Look, you were right about Pansy," Tracey said quietly. "Daphne doesn't agree with me, and she told me I shouldn't do this but... But Ly, I'm so sorry."

Lyra didn't say anything. She put down her paper and gazed across the table at her old friend who had made the past five months of her school career utterly miserable. She wasn't sure she had forgiven her yet.

"I had to serve detention with her for three days, with Pansy," Tracey said quickly. Her dark brown eyes looked sadly at Lyra. "I... I'm just.. I've been terrible to you and I don't know what I can-" "There's nothing you can do," Lyra cut her off. "You and Daph have both been awful. You especially. Daphne... Well, she's a Greengrass. She spends her holidays with the sort of people who don't want to be associated with anyone who might be more dangerous than they see themselves, but you?" Lyra leveled her gaze with Tracey, "What you did was just cowardice."

Lyra pushed her bowl away from her, suddenly not hungry. Tears stung her eyes.

"Do you know how many times I needed someone to talk to?" Lyra said. Her voice cracked a little. "I've had more heart-to-hearts with Harry Bloody Potter than with you, and you were supposed to be my ally, my friend in all this!"

Lyra stood up and gathered her things. She didn't want to cry in front of Tracey, but it was becoming a serious risk. Tracey didn't call after her as she left. She just watched as Lyra retreated, pushing past Ron Weasley who waved at her on her way out.

* * *

_**March 20th, 1994**_

"Professor?" Lyra knocked on Professor Lupin's office door. She peaked her head inside and saw him sitting behind a desk with a large piece of paper spread out across his desk. He tapped it with his wand and it folded up into a small, worn square before it hid in his desk drawer.

"Hello, Lyra," Lupin said calmly, as though he'd been expecting her. Lyra thought back to Harry Potter's tale about the map and as she held the filthy envelope she'd been sent in the mail that morning, she nearly forgot why she'd gone.

"Was that-" She started to ask but thought better of it. "Er... I have a question..."

"A question?" Lupin smiled kindly. "Of what sort?'

Lyra placed the envelope with her name written across it in hasty, shaky scrawl in front of him. Lupin stared at the envelope, and Lyra could have sworn she saw a flash of recognition in his eyes as he traced the writing with his index finger.

"May I?" asked Lupin as he picked up the envelope with his fingers and wanted to open it.

"That's why I brought it," Lyra nodded. Lupin opened up the envelope and pulled out a well-worn, well-creased photograph that appeared to be have a few water stains in the shape of droplets across it. "Is that who I think it is?"

The photograph had a young, smiling woman in it, cradling a baby in her arms. Her hair was blonde and straight, like Lyra's. She had a perfect cupid's bow for lips and looked up at whoever was taking the picture to smile. They were laying down in morning light, or some sort of natural light that streamed through a window, across the picture, on a large comfortable bed with various blankets and toys strewn across. The woman bore an astonishing resemblance to Lyra. The curve of their noses, the shape of their eyes, the smile...

"Is that Marlene McKinnon? My mother?" Lyra breathed. Andromeda didn't have any photographs of her.

Professor Lupin inspected the picture. He flipped it around and saw a message that Lyra clearly hadn't, or had omitted. It rendered him unable to answer Lyra's question with words. He simply nodded, and she let out a hiss of breath, forcing herself to sit down.

_The only two girls I've ever loved. June 1st, 1980._

* * *

_**March 27th, 1994**_

_Dear Dora,_

_No, there wasn't a return address. No, I don't know how he managed to send it. No, I didn't break into magical sores upon touching the photograph. No, I have no idea... All I know is that that morning, the photograph arrived and there was no note, no anything._

_No, I haven't told them yet either. How do I explain it? Hey Aunt Andromeda and Uncle Ted, just for the record, the mass murderer who sired me? Oh yeah... He sent me photograph of my mum and I from when I was a baby. No worries._

_How's auror training?_

_Love,_

_Lyra_

* * *

_**April 10th, 1994**_

"I've decided to forgive you," Lyra said as she hopped onto Tracey's four-poster bed in their dormitory. "On the condition that you help me with something..."

"Of course!" Tracey looked up from her arithmancy book and smiled. She let her book fall as she lunged forward and hugged Lyra tightly.

"Snape is going to murder us," Tracey hissed as she and Lyra lugged their large banner towards the Quidditch pitch. "I can't believe you talked me into this... What if they kick us out of Slytherin house? Can they do that?"

"Nah," Lyra shrugged. "They'll just exile you like they have done me for the last six months." Tracey fell silent. It was a valid point. She still, however, didn't understand why Lyra was so set on cheering against her house. She used to be on the team. She had one wanted to crush Gryffindor as much as the next person. Her change of pace excuse was a lousy one, of that much Tracey was certain.

As they crawled up to the top of the Gryffindor stands, Lyra nodded courteously at Ron and Hermione who gaped at her while she held her end of the banner above her head so as not to hit anyone with the roll as they made their way to the middle.

"Black, what do you think you're doing?" Dean Thomas frowned as he watched her push her way towards his banner.

"Trust me, Thomas," Lyra's cheeky smile was not comforting. "You'll love it."

All hands flicked to their wrists as they looked at the two girls, proudly wearing green and silver, sticking out like sore thumbs in the sea of red and gold. Tracey gave Lyra a nervous look and then the pair of them unravelled the banner over the side of the stands. In large green and silver print the words ONLY HIPPOGRIFFS CAN FLY FASTER THAN A FIREBOLT AND MALFOY HAS NEITHER!

"Bloody hell, Black," Ron chortled as he saw her triumphant smirk when Malfoy's face fell at the sight of her banner. "Once a snake, always a snake?"

"Even snakes don't take betrayal well, Weasley," Lyra replied. She straightened her shoulders and applied a sticking charm to the banner and the stands. Tracey stood awkwardly beside her friend. She looked around at the shocked expressions of the Slytherins who surrounded them. A few Gryffindors clapped them on the shoulders with wide grins and Tracey suddenly felt a rush of adrenaline she had never experienced before.

"How are you holding up, Trace?" Lyra looked over at her demure friend.

"Better than expected!"

* * *

_**April 20th, 1994**_

_Dear Lyra,_

_I'm very pleased to hear that Tracey Davis has changed sides, though I'm a bit concerned about what I've heard from your teachers recently. Is it true that you were cheering against Slytherin at the final match? That doesn't seem like you. I know it's difficult, but you must try not to hold a grudge... At least if you ever want to play quidditch for Slytherin again. _

_I hope you're studying hard for your exams._

_Love,_

_Aunt Andromeda_

* * *

_**September 1st, 1984**_

_Ted and Andromeda watched as Lyra pouted with her arms crossed on top of Nymphadora's trunk. Her blonde hair was backlit with sunlight, making her look like a little cherub at the age of four. _

"_Ly, you've got to get off of my trunk," Dora said sweetly._

"_No," Lyra frowned. "You can't leave." _

_Her little voice was the cutest thing Andromeda had heard since Dora had grown up. Her heart just ached as she looked at those big blue eyes and full baby lips. _

"_But, Ly," Dora tried again. She made her nose turn into a pig's one to make Lyra giggle, but the girl was so set on keeping her from Hogwarts again that she forced her lips downward further and scrunched up her eyebrows to appear more cross. Andromeda clapped her hand over her mouth to keep herself from laughing. They still had enough time to get to the platform without panicking, so she was letting it carry on. _

"_Dora, I don't want you to go," Lyra said in a tone that sounded eerily similar to Andromeda's when she was being firm with the girls. "If you go away, you'll- you'll forget about me."_

"_What makes you say that?" Dora laughed as she sat on the trunk next to the little girl. _

"_Because you don't look like me! And the tellie at Nan's said that animals who don't look like their young forget about them!" _

_Ted's mother loved watching National Geographic television shows with her two magical granddaughters whenever they visited. No one ever thought about the negative side effects of that. Andromeda checked her watch and gave Ted a look. _

"_Well, now I look like you," Dora said as her hair grew out into long blonde locks before Lyra's eyes. Her eyes changed to the same shade of blue, and she even made her nose as similar to Lyra's as she could. "So I won't forget about you! Can we leave now?"_

"_Yep," Lyra smiled. She grabbed onto Dora's hand with her tiny one, and hopped off the trunk. Ted gave his eldest the thumbs up. It was the perfect way to deal with the four-year-old girl who had recently become very aware of the differences between how she looked and how Ted and Andromeda looked._

* * *

_**May 13th, 1994**_

_Dear Lyra,_

_I know I've said this at least a thousand times since I heard, but I'm so proud of you. It takes a lot of guts to stand up against your house like that. Also, I've always hated that Draco git we're related to, so well done! _

_Unfortunately, there's not much that can be done about Buckbeak's appeal from what I gather. It's all tied up in stone. I know how much you love hippogriffs... Try not to think about it. Maybe in the afterlife, Buckbeak will be in a place where his majestic self is appreciated more than in England._

_Love,_

_Dora_

* * *

_**May 19th, 1994**_

Lyra's heart sunk when she saw the package on the Slytherin table. It had the same messy scrawl with her name on it. She had already received her birthday package from Andromeda, Ted and Dora, so she was unnerved to be staring at what appeared to be another package. Her eyes shifted around the table. Tracey had yet to show up for breakfast, so Lyra made the decision to take it to Professor Snape immediately. He was still cross at her for her stunt at the quidditch match, but he was always willing to look into things that had to do with Sirius Black.

"Miss Black, what is it?" He drawled as she entered his office, with the package trembling with her.

"Sir, I... I think Sirius Black sent me a birthday gift."

She didn't have to say anything else. Snape leapt to his feet and snatched the parcel away from her. He had one of the portraits in his office summon Dumbledore and Professor McGonagall. As Lyra hadn't opened it, the three professors all stared between her and the package talking in hushed tones.

"We should have anticipated that he'd send her something eventually," McGonagall said in her usual stern voice.

"He's broken into the castle twice and never once tried to find her," Snape snapped. "Minerva, _this_ was the least of our worries. The mad man has a daughter, yes, but how were we to know he really loved her?"

"Just because he sent a gift doesn't mean he really loves her, Severus," McGonagall retorted.

Dumbledore was the only one who hadn't said anything. He was studying Lyra's small frame in the corner of the office. She hadn't left. She stood still, still shaking. No one had thought he'd send her anything, because, as far as the world knew, he was just after Harry. The fact that he'd put in an effort to send her something, anything at all, was a notion that Lyra simply did not understand. Snape was right. He'd never tried to see her.

While the teachers continue to squabble in front of her, Lyra found her voice.

"Professors, er... Is it alright if I...If I open it?" She said meekly. All eyes turned to her. Another debate broke out about the safety of letting her open a parcel from a notorious mass murderer. It could be a cursed object, they mused. Finally, Dumbledore decided that there wasn't a safer place than in their presence for her to do so.

"Yes, but only touch the wrapping, just in case..."

Lyra opened up the brown paper wrapping and saw a cardboard box that was not taped shut. With her wand she opened up the flap, and everyone peered inside. There was a small piece of scrap parchment that had a message scrawled on it, and a box of sugar quills.

_Happy birthday. Your mother's favourite sweet. _

Lyra was only allowed to keep the piece of parchment. All three teachers watched as she carefully plucked it from the box and held it in her shaking hands. Before she left Snape's office, she asked that the teachers give her a week before they send notice to her guardians. She wanted to tell them first.

For the next two weeks before exams, Lyra had trouble focusing on anything other than the fact that Sirius had written her a birthday message. He had probably stolen the sugar quills. They might have been poisoned or hexed... But he had still sent her a gift. He remembered her birthday. The part of her that wondered about him only grew. It was a strange thing. Lyra had been so loved by Andromeda and Ted who had so kindly adopted her, but she still wondered about him. He was not a good person, like they were. In fact, he was the worst sort, but he had remembered her. That had to count for something, but it likely wasn't enough.

* * *

_**June 6th, 1994**_

As June approached, the weather became warmer. Despite the stress of exams, Lyra and Tracey spent many days with their ties off, sleeves rolled up, studying under a beech tree by the lake together. Tracey was better at Transfiguration than Lyra, so she was helping Lyra study for that like Lyra helped her with Potions once more. They both had moments of sorely missing Daphne who had them both beat when it came to Charms. However, as they watched her and Blaise Zabini strut around the castle together, missing her didn't last long at all. The exam that they were both looking forward to, however, was Defense Against the Dark Arts. As the exam week progressed, Lyra was certain she'd done a fairly good job on everything, except maybe astronomy. Despite her name, she'd never quite been into the stars.

As the pair of them walked towards Lupin's practical exam, Lyra prepared herself to face a boggart again... It had been Sirius Black last time, and she was sure that had changed. However, she received full marks for turning her boggart into a doll, and beamed as she and Tracey headed back to the castle for their last exam. Tracey had Arithmancy, while Lyra had Muggle Studies.

On their way, Lyra noticed the Minster of Magic talking to Harry. She shot him a look and he shrugged at her. _Buckbeak's appeal_... Lyra thought. _Must be._

It wasn't until after her Muggle Studies exam, which she thought went quite well, though she couldn't find Hermione after to ask her, It was on her way to dinner that she ran into Harry who looked white as a sheet.

"Hey Potter," Lyra caught up to him. "What's the matter?"

"Trelawney said something but- but never mind," He shook his head. "Also, Buckbeak..."

"Lost the appeal..." Lyra frowned. Harry nodded.

"We're gonna go visit Hagrid later tonight," Harry told her.

"Mind if I come?" Lyra asked. "I won't bring Tracey. I... I just... I feel responsible."

"You're not," Harry assured her. "Malfoy's at fault here. I mean, you're related to him too, but..."

"Yeah..." Lyra frowned. "So I take it that means I can come?"

"I suppose," Harry said. They arranged to meet outside the Great Hall once they'd finished eating. It didn't take long as none of them felt particularly hungry.

After a few grumbles from Hermione, the four of them set out in the tight squeeze under Harry's invisibility cloak. Hagrid was the most shocked at Lyra's presence. He had known that she liked his class, but he hadn't known that she too found herself particularly fond of the half-giant. As someone who had been prejudiced against for most of his life, it was easy to forget that he was quite lovable.

Lyra, Ron and Harry had all sat into the same overly large armchair comfortably and Hermione was fussing about the kitchen making tea. Hermione was searching for another milk jug while Hagrid recounted the story about how Dumbledore had tried to overrule the Committee's decision, and failed.

"It's just so cruel," Lyra said softly. Her blue eyes were filled with tears where Hagrid's hadn't been. He looked so vulnerable, and, as such a large man, that was the most heartbreaking part.

"Dumbledore's gonna come down for the- while it happens," Hagrid stumbled over his words. "Great man, Dumbledore..."

"We'll stay, too," Ron said. Hermione tried to cover up her small sob with noise from the kitchen and failed. She found the new jug and straightened up. Her eyes looked puffy with tears and exhaustion.

"Yeah, we'll stay with you too, Hagrid," Hermione said. The half-giant looked between the four of them.

"Yeh mustn't," He insisted. "I don' wan' any of yeh watchin'. If Fudge an' Dumbledore catch yeh..."

Hermione's tears fell first. Lyra didn't know what she was doing until she had wandered over and wrapped her arm around the girl's shoulders. Everyone gave her a look, and then accepted it. Stranger things were going on today, stranger, more important things. Hermione moved to pour some milk into the milk jug and let out a scream.

"Scabbers!" Hermione cried. Lyra stood back while a whole debacle over a rat came out and Lyra finally understood why the boys had been asking her for Potions help in the middle of the year. They had thought Hermione's cat had killed her rat. Lyra had never been happier that her cat preferred to stay inside, and, if she did hunt anything, it was normally Longbottom's toad.

"They're comin'..." Hagrid suddenly stood up. While Ron struggled to keep a hold of his rat, the four of them huddled uncomfortably under the invisibility cloak once more. Lyra watched Buckbeak as they hurried away. None of them wanted to watch or hear the execution, but suddenly Ron stopped dead in his tracks.

"Oh, for heaven's sake, Weasley, let's _go_," Lyra was already beginning to regret asking to come with them.

"It's Scabbers- he won't-"

"I don't care!" Lyra hissed. There was a sickening thud and they all fell silent for a moment.

It all happened so quickly. There was a struggle. Harry wanted to go back and see Hagrid, but he risked exposing them all, so that wouldn't do. Hermione had started to hyperventilate. The rat was squealing, squeaking and eventually bit Ron in the hand. It was getting dark. Lyra's head kept spinning as she watched it all happen, seemingly unable to stop it as Ron chased after his rat in the dark. The invisibility cloak flew off. Hermione and Harry bolted after Ron, leaving Lyra standing alone.

The self-preservation mechanism in her told herself to run back to the castle. The girl who hung banners against her former quidditch team from the Gryffindor stand, the girl who threw pumpkin juice at Pansy Parkinson, and the girl who punched Potter... She took over for a moment. There was a four second delay, but Lyra chased after the three Gryffindors.

Lyra froze as a giant black dog leapt at Harry, knocking him over.

"POTTER!" She shrieked. The dog's pale grey eyes looked at her and she clapped a hand over her mouth. There was a flash of recognition in the dog, but it continued on and grabbed Ron's outstretched arm. Lyra ran towards Harry and Hermione without contemplating her surroundings. It was dark, and she couldn't make out much in the pale moonlight that sifted through the leaves of a rather large-

There was a sickening thud and Lyra let out a scream of pain as a large tree branch swept her and Hermione to the side. Lyra could taste blood. She reached for her wand, but Harry's had already lit up. They were in front of the Whomping Willow. Its branches were creaking as though they were in the middle of a wind storm, but the still night are gave way to the branches that started to slam down around them. At the base of the tree, the black dog was dragging Ron downward into a gap between the-

Lyra narrowly avoided being hit again. Her heart was pounding. She wasn't made for this. This was too much. It was too exciting; required too much bravery, too much nerve. Lyra wasn't paying attention to the other two Gryffindors. She didn't hear the sickening crack of Ron's legs... She tried to dance around the branches towards the outside, until one sent her flying back towards the middle. Her eyes searched frantically.

"Potter? Granger?"

"We need to get help!" Hermione was shrieking. Lyra was still picking herself, or at least what wasn't broken, up off the ground. Andromeda was going to murder her for being so daft. Suddenly, Hermione's cat darted past her through Lyra's legs and leapt up the tree. Lyra felt around for her wand, wincing with pain as she did so, and lit it up, _'Lumos_."

Lyra held the wand out and watched as the cat hit a knot in the tree and stopped the branches moving entirely. For a moment, as she glanced over at Hermione and Harry, Lyra considered running back to the castle and getting Professor Snape. But she was already in enough trouble with him without admitting she'd been sneaking outside of the castle after dark with two Gryffindors he despised.

"This way," Harry ushered the two girls after him down a narrow tunnel following Crookshanks. Lyra hesitated. She considered following him, but then, without warning, she turned on her heel and bolted back to the castle. Her ribs hurt as she ran, and she was certain she had cracked one, but as she made her way inside she ran into Professor Lupin who had been running out of the castle at the time.

"Lyra!" He gasped as his hands clasped either side of her shoulders and she winced in response. "What are you do-"

"Sir! It's Potter and Granger and Weasley... There was a dog and a cat and that bloody great tree and the dog was huge, black and it bit Ron and dragged him down a tunnel and- Please help!"

She didn't need to say anything more after 'dog', Lupin had started to run towards the tree. Lyra chased after him but was much slower as she had started to feel the pain through the adrenaline coursing through her veins. By the time she had gotten back into the Shack, she could hear Granger's voice from upstairs.

"WE'RE UP HERE! WE'RE HERE! SIRIUS BLACK! QUICK!"

Lyra nearly fainted. She half-expected herself to stop running, but instead she pulled her exhausted body up the stairs and burst into the room in time to see Lupin disarm both Harry and Hermione. She made a slow movement for her own wand as Lupin spoke slowly to the man she couldn't quite see from behind him.

"Where is he, Sirius? Why hasn't he shown himself before now? Unless..."

As Lupin's wand fell to his side, Lyra lifted hers out.

"_Expelliarmus!_" Lyra screamed. As Lupin's wand fell out of his hands, the room fell silent. Sirius lifted himself up from the ground and stared at the girl who stood trembling in the doorway.

"Lyra..."

* * *

**A/N: Don't worry! There will be more coming soon! Just a huge shout out and thank you to all of you who are reading! :) Means a lot. **

**Pleeeease, fave, follow and reviiiiew. Y'all make my day. :) xo**


	8. Lex Talionis

_**October 7th, 1979**_

_Marlene was shaking as she prepared to tell Sirius her news. It was neither good news nor bad. It was simply news. Her uterus now had an occupancy of one. She was pacing around the Order headquarters. James was playing with his snitch while Lily leaned her head in his lap._

"_I'm not sure why you're panicking, Marls," James said lackadaisically. _

"_Might have something to do with the fact that we're talking about Sirius Orion Black, Prongs," Marlene snapped. "It's not like I'm Lily and he's... Well, you!"_

"_You might as well be," Lily smiled at her. "C'mon, love..."_

"_We're not even in an official relationship, Lily!" Marlene ran her hands through her blonde hair. "It's not like if you two get pregnant! I mean... You're married, so it's really nothing for you, but for me? For us?" _

"_For us?" Sirius' voice came from the doorway. He had an arrogant smile that Marlene was about to wipe right off of his handsome face._

"_We'll just leave you alone," Lily said as she leapt to her feet. "C'mon, James..."_

"_No, it's fine," Sirius shrugged as he strode over to Marlene. "I'm sure it's nothing important."_

_Marlene couldn't help herself. She started laughing harder than she ever had until tears were streaming down her cheeks and she was no longer laughing, but sobbing._

"_Marley..." Sirius said gently. "Oh, Marls, what's the matter?" _

"_Oh... Oh..." She collapsed into his arms. "I'm... I'm... P-pregnant..."_

_And in that moment, Sirius Black's world stopped. Everything he knew had changed. He didn't say another word, he simply walked out of the headquarters and around the corner to the nearest jewelers to buy a ring. Everyone else had rushed down the aisle because of the war. Why couldn't they?_

* * *

_**June 6th, 1994**_

Sirius' breath caught in his throat as he saw the startled girl standing in the doorway with her wand out. She had a split lip, and her eyes were wide open, but there was no denying whose daughter she was. She looked even more like Marlene than he had ever imagined. She was only there for a moment, however, as she quickly darted back down the hallway. He deflated as he watched her retreat.

Lyra's feet were moving faster than her head. She had already run to the castle, but she didn't care. She'd just assaulted a professor, granted a professor who was conspiring to murder a student, but still a professor! Lyra scrambled up out of the Whomping Willow and scrambled toward the castle, coughing and spluttering as she struggled to consume air. She was never, _ever_ going on another stupid escapade with Potter and Friends ever again. She wasn't built for this! She didn't care how many hippogriffs were executed.

As Lyra rushed into the castle, she saw the oddly comforting swoop of all too familiar black robes and rushed after them. As she rounded the corner, she stumbled and knocked into a coat of arms knocking it over with a huge crash. Professor Snape spun on his heels and saw her struggling to get up to her feet.

"Lyra?" He quickly made his way to her side and helped her to her feet. "What are you doing out?"

"Professor!" Lyra burst into tears. "Oh! I'm so sorry... I should have l-listened when you told me to stay away from P-Potter!"

Snape froze as once again Lyra Black threw her arms around him and started to cry into his robes. He never quite knew how to react when she did this, but he always eventually softened as he listened to her crying. It had been a rough year for her; for him, too.

"It's Sirius Black, sir," Lyra whimpered. "P-Professor Lup-p-pin has been helping him! They were hugging in the Shrieking Shack and Potter and Granger and- and-"

Snape pulled the girl off of her. He looked her in the eye and said only one word. It was the only word he could muster up.

"Where?"

* * *

_**March 12th, 1980**_

_Marlene was showing now as she sat on the sofa next to Sirius. He was reading her a story in French, that she didn't understand but enjoyed listening to all the same. Like all upper class, pureblood families, Sirius had been forced to become fluent in the language. Though Marlene didn't speak a word, it soothed the baby inside of her. The baby always stopped kicking when her father was speaking. _

_They had had a quick marriage that was executed by Frank Longbottom only a few months ago. Marlene had always imagined a huge fairytale wedding, like James and Lily had, but somehow, standing across from Sirius, making a vow to one another for the rest of their lives, felt exactly how it should have been. They weren't pomp and circumstance in their relationship or love for one another, so neither was their marriage. _

_Now, three of the female members of the Order were all expecting. Lily, Alice and Marlene had formed a coalition of hormones, as Sirius referred to it. Marlene was furthest along. She hated it, because she felt fat. Sirius insisted she wasn't. He insisted that she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on and always would be. _

_He'd bought them a house in the country-side with his uncle's inheritance. They'd decorated a nursery, bought little magic toys and onesies. He'd built a crib.. Or tried to until he gave up and used magic. They were going to have a family. They were young, terrified and fighting a war, but they were going to have a family._

_This was his chance at redemption. It was his opportunity to break the cycle of his damaged childhood. Sirius wanted this more than anything, but the pressure was terrifying. It made him wake up in the middle of the night in sweats, imagining what he'd do if his daughter came home in green and silver after her first year. He hated the idea. He hated it more than he hated the stupid tapestry in his family home with its mocking insignia and _toujours pur_. But would raging at his child start the cycle again? Would Blacks forever be bound to the cunning house? _

_He had no idea. Instead, he continued to read to Marlene in french. He pushed the thought of anything wrong out of his mind. Nothing could be wrong._

* * *

_**June 6th, 1994**_

Lyra's blue eyes were back. That was the first thing Sirius noticed as his school nemesis appeared in the doorway. It was Lyra's eyes peering at him from behind the billowy black robes. She had run off to get him, or maybe he had found her and dragged her back. Sirius refused to believe that the former was more likely than the latter, but as he looked at the betrayal on Harry's face, a sinking realization washed over him. He leapt to his feet and started to step around Snape to get to Lyra, but found Snape's wand jabbing into his throat.

"Take another step," Snape snarled. "Give me a reason, Black. I _beg_ of you."

The wand dug deeper into the delicate flesh of Sirius' neck. Lyra's mouth ran dry. She glanced over at Hermione who had clapped a hand over her mouth. Harry was shooting daggers at her with his emerald eyes behind his round glasses.

"Severus, you're making a mistake," Lupin said. He was trying to appear calm and collected, but looked to be in an absolute panicked frenzy. "Sirius isn't here to kill Harry! He's innocent, he-"

Lyra's head jolted towards her Defense Against the Dark Arts teacher. Her eyes met her biological father's sunken in, pale grey eyes and she felt a shock of electricity course through her veins. She glanced back at Harry and then towards Lupin. That wasn't possible. People had witnessed him... He was convicted of murder... He had killed Peter Pettigrew and twelve muggles... He had sold out Harry's parents. Madam Rosmerta's voice echoed in her head again, _"Of all the people to go bad..."_

"You're mad... You're absolutely mad," Snape growled. "I told Dumbledore it wasn't possible... I told him there was no such thing as a _tame_ werewolf..."

"Your grudge is worth putting an innocent man back in Azkaban?" Lupin said with as much conviction as he could muster up. Lyra felt like she might pass out. Snape's wand was still poking into Sirius Black's neck. Sirius hadn't moved, but he hadn't taken his eyes off of Lyra either. It was like he was trying to drink in as much of her as he could possibly see.

"Professor Snape!" Hermione's voice came from beside Harry. She sounded small and desperate. "Just hear them out! Hear what they have to say-"

"Miss Granger, for once in your pathetic existence, would you kindly_ hold your tongue_?" Snape spat each word as though it tasted bitter on his tongue.

"But if there was a mistake, sir, if he was imprisoned wrongly?" Her eyes fell on Lyra. She silently pleaded with Sirius Black's daughter to believe her, to believe Lupin, to believe that Sirius could be innocent.

"Do not talk about what you don't understand," Snape snapped. "Oh, I had hoped I'd be the one to catch you, Black... Victory is so sweet..."

Lyra felt like the world was spinning. There was so much information being thrown around, so much bitterness, so much confusion. She kept glancing between everyone in the room, until she locked eyes with Sirius Black.

"Lyra..." He whispered. "Lyra, believe me..."

"Don't you _dare_ speak to her," Snape hissed. Sirius Black's eyes flickered up to Snape's and flashed with such hatred that Lyra could feel it vibrate off of the pair of them.

"She is _my_ daughter, Snivillus, I'll speak to her if I please," Sirius growled.

"Don't call him that!" Lyra finally spoke up. "Don't call _me_ that!" All eyes fell back to her.

"Lyra, _he says he's innocent_" Harry said with such confidence that she nearly believed him.

It was a chorus of her name for a few minutes as all of the voices overlapped. Snape tried to convince her to step back behind him, or to leave. Sirius was begging her to trust him. Harry was pleading for Sirius, and Hermione was simply pleading for some sort of assurance in the authority figures that surrounded her. There was talk about rats, animagi, and plenty of concepts that swirled around Lyra's head in one big heap of confusion.

"Shut up," Lyra said softly to try and get the voices to stop from enveloping her. "I SAID SHUT UP!"

* * *

_**May 20th, 1980**_

_Sirius had never loved another person as much as he loved the tiny, sleeping human in his arms as he paced around the Hospital Wing at Hogwarts, the only medical place that was trusted now, while Marlene slept off the difficult labour from the evening before. She had a tuft of blonde hair on her head and perfect pink lips. She was everything that Sirius had ever wanted in the world. She was uncorrupted innocence. _

_They had chosen the name weeks ago. Lyra Cassiopeia Black. She would be the most loved baby. She would have whatever she wanted. Sirius wanted to give her the world, the moon and the stars. He had had the night sky painted on the ceiling of her nursery for that purpose. Lyra was perfect, of that much Sirius was certain._

"_Sirius," Madame Pomfrey's voice came from the doorway. "You should get some rest while you still can..." _

"_If it's just the same to you," Sirius said as he watched a tiny, perfect fist wriggle its way out of the swaddling blanket, "I think I'll just watch her for now." _

"_You'll have a lifetime to do that," Madame Pomfrey smiled as she watched the glow of fatherhood spread across Sirius like the rising sun._

* * *

_**June 6th, 1994**_

Everyone stood staring at Lyra who was now shaking with a mixture of rage, fear and confusion. Harry stepped towards her, his eyes pleading with her to do something, anything, to fix this situation. Snape had turned to face her, with rage apparent on every inch of his face.

"Excuse me?" He looked at her with an expression that had once been unfathomable. This was Professor Snape, Severus Snape, head of Slytherin house, and Lyra's, up until recently, favourite teacher.

"I said," Lyra swallowed the fear that started to encapsulate her throat. "Shut up... Sir."

"Do you realize how quickly I could have you all _expelled_?" Snape growled. "How quickly these two bumbling fools could be kissed by dementors?" He gestured to Lupin and Sirius who were now staring at her with expressions that appeared somewhere between terrified and awestruck.

"So do it," Lyra said quietly. "What's stopping you?"

Snape looked like Lyra had slapped him across the face. He took a step back and narrowed his eyes at her. She was no longer innocent in his eyes. He raised his hand as though he was about to slap her, but before he could, three voices shouted, "_EXPELLIARMUS!"_

Snape, and his wand, went flying. He was knocked unconscious.

"You. Bloody. _Idiots!_" Lyra glared. "You just assaulted a teacher!"

"We... We attacked..." Hermione looked very pale, as though she might pass out from the reality of what she'd just done.

"A TEACHER!" Lyra shouted. Her eyes were wide with fright and adrenaline. Her slight frame was trembling. Her matted hair only added to the air of frenzy about her. All in all, she had never, ever been so terrified in her life. Threatened with expulsion and dementors, Lyra figured this was exactly the sort of "dangerous behaviour" Ted and Andromeda had hoped she'd avoid. Her eyes glanced over to Sirius Black. _Oh Merlin_, she thought, _I've stepped in it now. I should have never asked to come. I should have spent the evening with Tracey_.

"Well, I wasn't going to let him knock _you_ unconscious!" Harry rebutted. "Blimey, Black, a little thanks?"

"Thanks?" Lyra stared at him. "You want me to thank you? I could've taken the hit if it meant us getting out of here without being murdered by two raving lunatics! You better be right about _him_," She jerked her head towards Sirius Black who looked wide-eyed and tensed at the prospect of Snape slapping Lyra.

"Yes," Lupin said pensively from beside Sirius. "About time we give you some proof."

"ABOUT TIME?" Lyra shrieked. "ABOUT BLOODY TIME?"

"Lyra," Sirius said in a strained voice. "Calm down..."

"Calm down?" Lyra turned to him. "You want me to _calm down_? NONE OF WHAT YOU'RE SAYING MAKES ANY SENSE, AND YOU THINK YOU HAVE THE RIGHT TO TELL ME TO _CALM. DOWN?!_"

"Well, I am your-"

"DON'T SAY IT!" Lyra shouted at him. "Don't you _dare_ use your paternity as an excuse for giving me orders, you... you filthy... _mutt._"

"I don't have time for this," Sirius turned away from her, muttering about twelve years in prison only to get lip from a child. She had no clue how it stung to hear her call him a mutt. She sounded so much like Marlene, who had used that very same term when angry, "Give me that rat," He said to Ron. His bony hand was shaking as he reached out.

"What are you going to do with him?" Ron asked. His eyes shifted from Sirius Black to Lupin, and to Lyra who looked tense enough to pounce with her claws out at any moment.

"Force him to show himself," Lupin replied. "It won't hurt him if he really is just a rat."

Lyra stood in the doorway and watched as the rat was handed over. Sirius helped himself to Snape's wand. He and Lupin shot a blinding flash of light at him, and then suddenly, the rat that had once been stalked by Lyra's cat, by Hermione's cat, turned into a short man with a large bald-patch and unkept colourless hair.

"Merlin's beard," Lyra whispered with wide eyes. She found herself stepping towards Harry and Hermione for solidarity, and also because she feared she might pass out.

"Hello, Peter," Professor Lupin smiled though it didn't reach his eyes. "It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"S-Sirius... R-Remus... My friends, my dear friends..." Peter Pettigrew squeaked. Lyra reached for her wand and kept a firm grip on the handle. He twitched and fidgeted much like a rodent, even though he'd changed back into human form. He looked absolutely cowardly.

"Care to clarify a few things, Peter?" Lupin raised an eyebrow. "You might have missed the finer things while you were squeaking. My question is, why would an innocent man spend twelve years as a rat?"

"Innocent, but scared!" The balding man squealed. "What if... If Voldemort's supporters came after me... Because I put h-him, their best spy, their best man, in prison? In Azkaban?"

"How dare you," Sirius looked ready to attack. His teeth were bared and he looked terrifying. "Me? A spy for _him_? For Voldemort? HE KILLED MY WIFE! HE KILLED THE MOTHER OF MY CHILD!_" _

Lyra could have sworn she saw him start to froth at the mouth like a rabid dog.

"How can you say such a thing..." Peter wiped his face which was beading with sweat. It wasn't particularly warm, so Lyra assumed he must have been getting nervous. His nerves only made her feel more nauseous and dizzy. Her insides ached. Snape would have let an innocent man lose his soul to dementors.

"Lily and James only made you Secret-Keeper because I suggested it," Sirius stepped foward. "Because why would Voldemort ever dream of a weak, talentless thing like you being something so vital, so important? Must have been your proudest moment, eh, Pete? Being able to tell the Dark Lord himself you could hand him the Potters."

Lyra looked over at Harry. He had tensed entirely. She could see the muscles of his jaw twitching.

"Why did you suggest it?" Lyra butted in, ignoring Pettigrew's mumblings, "What made you suggest the change?"

"Your mother had just been killed," Sirius said quietly. He couldn't meet her eyes. "I was feeling reckless and bold."

"So you were willing to risk me to save Harry and his parents?" Lyra frowned. "How very noble of you."

"That wasn't- I didn't-" Sirius stumbled over his words. "I didn't want you in danger, Lyra. I wanted you safe. Being secret-keeper wasn't keeping you safe, it was putting you in danger."

"But acting as the decoy, leaving me potentially orphaned, that would be _fine_? That would be _safe_?" Lyra snapped.

"At least you weren't _actually_ orphaned," Harry said dryly.

"Touché," Lyra acknowledged with a curt nod.

"I owe you both more apologies than I can give at this moment," Sirius said hoarsely. "Believe me, I never betrayed your parents, Harry... I would have died before I betrayed them..." He turned to Lyra and said, "Forgive me..."

Harry and Lyra exchanged looks. Lyra swallowed a lump that had started to tighten her throat. They made a silent agreement with their azure and emerald eyes before the pair of them turned to Sirius and nodded their belief.

Peter Pettigrew had fallen to his knees as though they had just given the go-ahead to his executioner.

"Shall we kill him together, Remus?" Sirius turned to Lupin.

"Yes, I think so," Lupin said with a dark look overtaking his scarred face.

"I was your... Your friend!" Peter gasped. He looked desperate, crazed and scared for his life, as he should have been.

"SO WERE THEY!" Sirius shouted.

"Harry, Harry, your parents... Your father... He wouldn't have wanted me dead," Peter turned and begged from his knees at Harry's feet. "You look just like your father... And you... You, Lyra... Like your mother..."

"HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO THEM!" Sirius roared. He lunged forward and was held back by Lupin's arm. "HOW DARE YOU FACE THEM AND SPEAK OF JAMES AND MARLENE IN FRONT OF THEM!"

"They wouldn't have wanted me killed," Peter whispered. "They would have understood... Shown me merc-" As he reached for Lyra's robes, she kicked his hands away.

"It's a shame we never had the chance to meet them then, isn't it?" Lyra sneered. "I do not believe in mercy for traitors," Lyra then invoked a term she'd found in an old text about Salazar Slytherin and early wizarding law, "_Lex talionis_. An eye for an eye, Pettigrew."

With that, the man broke into tears. He cowered on the floor, sobbing like an overgrown child. Nothing had ever disgusted Lyra like the sight of the balding mess of a man before her.

"What could I have done? I was never brave like you, Remus and James... He forced me... You know who made me do-"

"Don't lie!" Sirius' voice echoed around the room. "It was a year! You'd been passing information to him for a year! IT WAS YOUR FAULT MARLENE'S PARENTS WERE FOUND! YOUR FAULT SHE DIED! YOUR FAULT JAMES AND LILY WERE MURDERED!"

"Wh-what was there to be gained by refusing him?" Peter gasped for air.

"Only innocent lives, Peter!" The rage in Sirius' expression mirrored the blood that boiled in Lyra's veins. Lyra clenched her fists so tightly that she felt her skin start to tear as her nails bit into her palms.

"You don't understand," Pettigrew sobbed. "I would have been killed! I would have-"

"THEN YOU SHOULD HAVE DIED! DIED RATHER THAN BETRAY THEM!" Sirius bellowed. Lupin and Sirius squared their stance. They had their wands raised towards Pettigrew.

"Oh, Peter," Lupin said softly. "You should have known if Voldemort didn't kill you, we would. So long, Wormtail."

Hermione covered her face with her hands and turned away, but Lyra kept her eyes glued to him. She wanted to see the life taken from the man that had robbed so many of theirs. Her heart pounded in her chest.

"Do it," Lyra said cooly. "Kill him." She was blinded with rage, anger and grief as she wondered what her life might have been like had Sirius not been imprisoned.

"No, wait," Harry said. He threw himself in front of Pettigrew and faced the wands. "You can't kill him."

"Harry," Lyra hissed. "Haven't you been listening, you twit? He's the reason your parents are-"

"I _know_ what he did, Black," Harry rolled his eyes at her. "Listen, if he dies... You'll both be killers and... I just... My dad wouldn't have wanted that. I don't know about Marlene or whatever, but I can't let you become killers just because of him."

"Oh, oh thank you," Peter wailed as he tossed himself at Harry's feet.

"I'm not doing this for you," Harry sneered. The wands were lowered. "He deserves Azkaban, and, Sirius, you deserve to be free."

Lyra's rage flashed briefly hotter than it had before, and then simmered down to a rolling boil. He wouldn't be dead. He would be imprisoned. Sirius would go free. Lyra suddenly heard Andromeda's voice singing lullabies in her head. She heard Ted reading Babbity Rabbity. She remembered Dora building snow castles with her in the backyard during Christmas holidays... A life of Sirius might have looked very different to the childhood she had been able to enjoy... Would she have known Andromeda and Ted? Would they have been included? Would she have wound up in Slytherin?

As the group of them made it down the hall, Ron, Lupin and Pettigrew shackled together, while Snape was levitated by Sirius, Lyra hung just behind Harry and Sirius with Hermione.

"I'm never going anywhere with you lot again," Lyra whispered to Hermione as she stared at the back of her biological father and Harry.

"I said that to those two once," Hermione smirked. "At least it wasn't anything overtly life threatening this time..."

"_This_ time," Lyra rolled her eyes. "Only a convict, a werewolf and an assaulted professor threatening to expel us all."

"Happens once a year," Hermione teased. Lyra simply shook her head. She didn't find the joke that funny, but Hermione let out a little giggle out of nerves.

"Turning Pettigrew in will mean you're free," Harry said abruptly to Sirius in front of Lyra.

"Yes..." Sirius said. He glanced over his shoulder at Lyra who had fallen silent once more. "But I'm... I'm your godfather. I don't know if you've heard that, but er- your parents wanted me to be your guardian if anything happened to them... I'll understand if you want to stay with your aunt and uncle... But er... once my name's cleared, if you wanted a different home..."

Lyra frowned. Harry broke into a wide smile and had hastily agreed to live with Sirius. She swallowed her discontent. Her cheeks burned with a blush. He had asked Harry to live with him before he'd asked her. Maybe he didn't want her to live with him... Not that she was sure she wanted to, but it was the principle of the thing.

"You want to?" Sirius broke into his first true smile that Lyra had seen on his face. "Blimey, alright... Three bedrooms, then. Yeah, we'll have to have three bedrooms... A proper family."

Lyra inhaled sharply. _Oh_. He wasn't going to ask her at all. He simply assumed her stance.

"I already have a bedroom," Lyra said quietly. _And a proper family_, she thought, but didn't have the courage to say aloud. Sirius' smile faltered for a moment.

"Of course you do," He said. "Of course. I just thought... No, er... Never mind, Lyra... Of course. I'm sorry... I should have-"

"It's fine," Lyra said stiffly. "I'd like to visit you..." She avoided his eyes until they got out of the narrow tunnel. Visiting was clearly not the purpose of the third bedroom. As they emerged, a cloud shifted and they were all bathed in moonlight.

"Hermione..." Lyra whispered. "A convict... An assaulted teacher and..." The pair of them looked at each other horrified and said in unison, "A _werewolf._"

"Run," Sirius whispered. "Run. Now."

Lyra started to back away, towards the castle, but tripped over one of the roots. She let out a scream of pain as her ribs shot with the wounds from the Whomping Willow before. Her terrified eyes caught sight of Lupin starting to transform. This was it. Her stint of allegiance with the Gryffindor house was done. It wasn't enough that she had been stupid enough to think she could get away with sneaking out of the castle with them, oh no, she had to sneak out of the castle the night that _this_ happened.

"RON!" Harry screamed as he lunged towards his best friend, chained to the transforming werewolf. Lyra struggled to get to her feet. She watched her biological father struggle with Harry.

"HARRY, RUN!" Sirius bellowed. He transformed into his animagus, the bear-like dog from before, and started to wrestle with the werewolf. Professor Snape was still unconscious. Lyra suddenly felt a wave of guilt and frustration. He would have been at least somewhat helpful in this situation if he were only awake. There was a struggle as Pettigrew used the transformation to turn into his own animagus and bolt away into the night.

"SIRIUS!" Lyra shouted. "He's transformed!" The dog turned its head to look at her, just in time for him to be swiped at by a clawed paw. There was a squeal of a wounded dog and Lyra's heart started to pound harder than she had expected. "Sirius?" She scrambled over the roots of the Whomping Willow towards the wounded dog. Before she could get there, the dog had pulled itself back up on its feet and chased after the werewolf into the forest.

Lyra could vaguely hear Hermione and Harry discussing the Weasley boy beside her, but she didn't care. She could still make out the yelping of a dog in pain in the night. As though a biological switch inside of her shifted, Lyra suddenly had millions of questions about sugar quills and baby photos... She wanted to know about her mother, her father, their relationship, if they'd been in love, if he could ever forgive her for being in Slytherin... If he died, if he was fatally wounded, she'd never know.

"SIRIUS!"

Harry noticed the movement out of the corner of his eye. He jerked his head around and saw Lyra half-running, half-limping towards the forest with her mess of blonde hair flying behind her.

"_Black_!" Harry called after her. "Bloody _hell_." He and Hermione exchanged looks over Ron as they started to chase after her. He heard what sounded like a struggle and another yelp of pain. This time, it wasn't a dog; it was a human.

Lyra had seen the dog transform back into a human; her father. She threw herself with full force towards her father as he hunched over, visibly injured on all fours. _Of course, I'll have the third bedroom. Of course, I'll come stay with you. Please don't die_, Lyra imagined herself saying to him not moments before. Her distraction in her thoughts meant that she didn't notice the steep decline of the terrain as it reached the lake's edge. She lost her footing and tumbled down the eroded earth and landing hard against the stony shore. She let out a yelp of pain, and struggled to pull herself towards Sirius.

"Lyra..." Sirius looked over at her. Her lip had re-split during the fall and she had a trickle of blood sliding down her chin. He crawled towards her. "Baby girl..." His voice sounded more tender than it ever had.

It was then that the icy cold started to make goosebumps appear on their exposed skin. Lyra looked around, her vision suddenly clouded, as she made out at least a hundred dark figures.

"No," Sirius' voice moaned. "No, please..."

"Hermione, think of something happy!" Harry's voice shouted.

That was the last thing Lyra heard before her vision went entirely black, and she heard her godmother telling her _'Choose. It's him or us.'_

* * *

**A/N: Sorry this took so long! Haha... A few brief flashbacks will be included in the chapters to come as well. Anyway, the rat's out of the bag. Lyra's there and back, there and back, running I think is pretty in tune with who she is as a person. She's kind of always dancing on the edge of being one way or the other. She's fickle _and_ stubborn, which makes her hilariously indecisive even when it's dangerous. Like "OH GOOD, ONE RESPONSIBLE ADULT. Oops, turns out he's not responsible at all. TRY AGAIN! Well, shit."**

**I hope you enjoyed this chapter... Please leave a review and let me know! Follow/Fave too, if the spirit so moves you! You guys are the greatest, and I really am thankful that you've all put in the energy to follow this story and read it! :) Thanks so much, xo Sophie**


	9. Reconciled

**A/N: Sorry for the wait! I've just started working my summer job full time, but there's definitely more of this story to come! Thank you all for your continued support. It means loads and loads.**

* * *

_**June 6th, 1994**_

Lyra was curled up by the fireplace in Andromeda's living room with Calypso fast asleep on her lap. Ted was reading her "The Fountain of Fair Fortune," while the smell of Andromeda's baking filled the house. Everything was bathed in light, and even though she felt cold, it had the illusion of being quite warm. In the kitchen, Lyra could see Andromeda laughing and chatting away with a blonde woman whose face Lyra couldn't quite make out. Lyra wanted to wave them over but her body felt stiff and heavy with sleep, so she listened to Ted's story instead. _They'll come to me,_ Lyra thought. _They love me._

"_Only one can bathe in the fountain of-" _Ted's voice suddenly changed into one that made the hairs on Lyra's neck. "_Black had bewitched them. It was clearly the work of a very artful confundus charm."_

Lyra felt the warmth of Calypso on her lap drift away. She looked at Ted whose mouth was still moving as he read from The Tales of Beedle the Bard, but the words he was saying didn't make any sense.

"_It will be hard enough to decide which of us will..." Ted's voice was back but it sounded like a faded memory and changed once more, "...seem to think he was innocent..." _Ted was saying with a smile on his face as he flipped the page. Lyra felt a cool breeze that she didn't recognize from the home. The smell of baking was replaced by cold, medicinal herbs.

"_What most surprised me was his daughter's involvement. As someone from my house, I was astonished she had joined in the brigade with Potter and his friends... While Potter has always tested boundaries... Miss Black was very careful about her loyalties._"

Lyra's childhood home suddenly faded to darkness. Her breathing picked up as the voice from her dream turned nightmare didn't go away. It only got louder.

"The boy has been foolish, but we shall see about the rest..." A voice that Lyra had only heard on Andromeda's wizarding radio said.

Her eyes flickered open and she took in the sight of a stone ceiling comprised of gothic arches and as she tilted her head to the side she saw Hermione and Harry laid down on cots beside her. Everything ached and her mouth felt like it was full of cotton balls.

"What amazes me most is the way the dementors behaved... You haven't any idea what made them head back to their posts?"

"No, by the time I arrived, Minister, they were heading back. Black, and the students were all unconscious."

Lyra tried to shift as quietly in her bed as she could. Her head was spinning, and it took a while for her to process what had happened. She winced as she felt the sharp jab of pain hit her ribs. Lyra glanced over to her side and got a better look of Harry and Hermione.

Never again would she sneak out with those three, help them or do anything overtly courteous for them ever again_,_ Lyra swore internally as she struggled to lift herself up on her elbow. _Never. EVER. Again._ Lyra let out a loud grunt of pain and Hermione's head whipped around. She pressed her finger against her lips, but was quickly blocked by Madame Pomfrey.

"You'll puncture a lung if you keep that up, Miss Black," Madame Pomfrey said sharply. She thrust forward a single dosage flask and insisted that Lyra drink the vile smelling potion inside. Begrudgingly, she did so but made a face at the taste. "Yes, well, that's the cost of healing two broken ribs. Next time, don't sneak out of the castle after dark."

"Potter," Madame Pomfrey spun around just as Lyra herself was noticing that he was standing up from the bed. "What do you think you're doing?"

"Going to see the headmaster," Harry replied. Lyra shot Hermione a questioning look, but the best she could manage was a shrug of the shoulders.

"Oh, dear boy," Madame Pomfrey's voice was suddenly softer, gentler, like she was trying to lull him back to sleep. She placed her hand delicately on Lyra's shoulder and squeezed lightly. It was a gesture that Andromeda had done only in moments when things seemed very grave in their lives together, "It's all right. Black is locked away now... He'll be receiving a dementor's kiss any moment now."

Lyra choked on the second vial of potion that had been thrust into her hands and coughed it up all across the bed as Harry shouted, "WHAT?"

Hermione and Harry were both leaping to their feet, Lyra coughed up some more of her potion. Her eyes watered as she struggled for air and saw that the Minister of Magic and Severus Snape had entered the Hospital Wing. She swung her legs outside of her bed. This was bad. This was terrible. This was... _Exactly the sort of thing that happens when you sneak around with Gryffindors_, a voice that sounded eerily like Tracey's sneered in her head.

"Harry, my boy, what's the matter?" Cornelius Fudge said. Lyra wiped her chin with the back of her hand and wiped away the healing solution as she gaped at the Minister of Magic. "Poppy, why aren't they in bed? Have they had any chocolate?"

"Listen," Harry said urgently. "Sirius Black is innocent! Petter Pettigrew faked his own death! We saw them both tonight! Don't let Sirius do that... That thing!"

"Harry, you're very confused," Fudge said in an almost condescending voice. Lyra felt rage bubble up inside her. They weren't confused. It was the adults who were. Her blue eyes shot an icy stare towards Snape who was avoiding her gaze. "We've got everything sorted..."

"YOU HAVEN'T!" Harry shouted. Lyra kept her eyes glued to Professor Snape. She had trusted him. She had trusted him for years, perhaps blindly, because of his authority. She had thought he was a great man.

"It was Ron's rat," Hermione said quickly. "He's an Animagus, Pettigrew, and-" Lyra didn't listen to whatever else Hermione had to say. Snape wasn't looking at her. He had to know. Deep down, he had to realize that his lying was wrong...

"_Professor_," Lyra said insistently. He didn't turn to face her. He simply kept his calculating stare ahead. It was in that moment that Lyra realized what a grave error she'd made. Severus Snape was cowardly and self-serving in his ambitions. Those were the deep underbelly of Slytherins. Those were the qualities Lyra despised. "Professor Snape. Look at me," When he didn't turn to face her, she raised her voice, "Look. At. _Me!" _He didn't, "He's my _father_... My innocent father... Professor, _please_..."

"You see, Minister?" Snape said in a weak voice. "An impressive Confundus Charm... Quite impressive... Earlier this _week,_ Miss Black would have never referred to him that wa-"

"WE'RE NOT CONFUNDED!" Lyra screamed. Her voice broke in the middle of her shout. If she hadn't shouted at all of them to shut up earlier in the Shrieking Shack, Harry would have been properly surprised at the force with which she yelled. However, he was more than aware of the force that she had in her. In fact, Madame Pomfrey looked most concerned at her. She was convinced that the feat of yelling would have re-fractured her rib.

"I must insist that you both leave now," Madame Pomfrey said angrily at the two men. "These children are quite distressed enough without this exacerbation... This-"

"I'm not distressed," Harry said. He was turning red in the face he was so angry. "Lyra, are you distressed?"

"No, Potter, I'm quite _fine_," She narrowed her eyes at Professor Snape. "And you, Granger? How distressed do you feel?"

"Not _nearly_ distressed enough," Hermione said vindictively. The door opened to the Hospital Wing and in floated Professor Dumbledore.

"Professor! Sirius Black is innocent!" Harry said while Lyra had said, "Professor Dumbledore, Snape is lying!" Their words came out jumbled all on top of each other until Madame Pomfrey shoved chunks of chocolate into their mouths to get them all to be quiet.

"For Merlin's sake! Is this a hospital wing or a mad house?" She said. Her voice was shrill on the brink of hysteria.

"Poppy, I'm quite sorry," Dumbledore said in his usual serene voice. "I need a word with Mr. Potter, Miss Granger and Miss Black... I've had a most intriguing conversation with Sirius Black in the west to-"

"The West Tower?" Lyra had said after swallowing her chocolate and lifting herself back out of the bed she'd been pushed back into. "I need to talk to him! I owe him an apology!"

"You owe him _nothing_," Snape snapped. He reached his hand out to her back into the bed, but Lyra slapped away his hand. Snape turned to Professor Dumbledore, "I suppose, Professor, he has told you the fairy tale he's implanted in these helpless students' minds. The rat and a living Pettigrew or some such nonsense..."

"Yes, that indeed is his story," Dumbledore replied. He appeared to be surveying Snape quite closely, as though gauging the truth.

"Peter Pettigrew was not in the Shrieking Shack," Snape said cooly. "I didn't see any signs of him on the grounds."

"That's because you were knocked out, Professor," Hermione said with an earnest tone to her voice.

"HOLD YOUR TONGUE!"

"Severus!" Fudge declared. His eyes widened at the severity of his tone of voice.

"It's fine, Minister," Lyra said in a sickly sweet voice. "You see, he's only a bit upset about that... He was knocked unconscious because Harry was protecting me from him. He was going to slap me."

"Clearly, the young ladies are disturbed," Snape held out his hand accusingly. "You see? Confunded, I tell you!"

"I would like to speak to Harry, Hermione and Lyra alone," Dumbledore said. "Please leave us."

There was a bit of a disturbance as Madame Pomfrey was not at all impressed with the idea of being forced to leave her patients alone. Dumbledore, however, impressed upon her the importance of what he had to say. Snape whispered something Lyra couldn't quite make out to the headmaster before he left. As he stalked away and the door closed behind him, Hermione, Harry and Lyra all burst into speech at the same time.

"Black's telling the truth!"

"Yeah, we _saw_ Pettigrew!"

"He escaped because Lupin turned into a werewolf!"

"He's a rat!"

"His front paw-" "_Finger_, Potter, his _finger_," "Whatever, he cut it off!"

"Pettigrew attacked Ron, it wasn't Sirius who-"

Dumbledore held up his hand to cut them off.

"We have very little time, so please do not interrupt me..." He started. It was all down hill from there.

* * *

As Lyra made her way through the winding castle staircases, cursing the fact that her head didn't fit into the time turner chain as well, her head was spinning. What did she say to him once she got there? What could she possible say? There was no evidence to support their opinion. There was nothing except her word, and at this point...

The cool night air hit Lyra's face as she emerged at the top of the West Tower. Her breathing was ragged, her eyes were filled with tears, but she pulled herself to the cell where they had kept Sirius. _This plan had better work_, she thought grumpily.

"Lyra?" His jaw dropped as he looked up. "What are you doing here? They can't be letting you watch-"

"I'm sorry!" Lyra blurted out as she flung herself at the bars of his cell. "I'm sorry I didn't believe you, I'm sorry I-" She inhaled sharply and a tear rolled down her cheek. "I had to see you to tell you... I'm sorry. I'm sorry for everything. For being in Slytherin. For trusting Snape... "

"Lyra," Sirius walked over and reached his arms through the bars. His skinny frame hugged hers through the cage. "It's all alright..." He whispered. He managed to pat her head. He pulled away and cupped her face with his dirty, gnarled hands. "It's alright. None of this is your fault. The prison... The jail... The dementor's kiss... You can't blame yourself for this."

"Blame myself for..." Lyra furrowed her brows. "Oh, I don't blame myself for any of this..." She waved her hand around the make-shift prison cell. "This is entirely on you. All of you Gryffindors do plenty of stupid, brave stuff like offering to be secret-keepers for your friends with bounties on their heads, but I mean," Lyra shrugged. "The other stuff... The threatening to kill you and trusting Snape... That's my fault."

Sirius let out a small laugh. He leaned forward and placed his chapped lips on Lyra's forehead through the bars.

"And I'm sorry in advance if I get detention for doing this," Lyra said softly. "Back up."

"Back up?" Sirius tilted his head to the side, until he saw her take out her wand.

"_Alohamora,_" Lyra said. When it didn't work on the bars, she tried again. "_Bombarda!_"

There was a crash and the bars had imploded on themselves. As she did so, she heard the flap of wings and saw Hermione and Harry ride in on Buckbeak.

"You staged a prison break," Sirius breathed. He sounded almost proud as he saw Harry atop the Hippogriff. "I _knew_ Andromeda couldn't train all of me out of you! I _knew_ it!" He laughed as he grabbed Lyra around the shoulders and ruffled her hair with one hand. Her stomach sank. She didn't know how to tell him that it wasn't exactly _her_ idea.

"Alright, get on," Harry said. "We don't have much time. They'll be here any minute."

They soared out of view into the castle courtyard for a moment so that they could say their proper goodbyes. Sirius sat in between Harry and Lyra on a bench for a moment. His arms were wrapped around each of their shoulders while Hermione stood across from them.

"James'd be so proud of you, Harry," Sirius said. "So very proud... You're so like him. Truly... And you," He squeezed Lyra. "Well, seldom has a Slytherin surprised me," He chuckled. "My daughter... A Slytherin. Oh, your grandmother would've loved that..."

"We don't have much more time, Sirius," Hermione said as she kept a look out. "They'll start a search soon..."

Sirius stood up, and so did both Harry and Lyra. He turned to them, and put each of his hands on one of their cheeks.

"You two look after each other," He said. He hugged them both and then, Sirius hopped on top of Buckbeak. "I'll be seeing you all again. I know it... Send Andromeda and Ted my regards!"

As he rode off into the moonlight, shrinking further and further into the distance, Lyra felt a warm feeling of satisfaction knowing that she'd done the right thing.

"So... I have to take care of you, huh, Black?" Harry smirked and elbowed her as she, Hermione and Harry made their way back to the Hospital wing.

"Fat chance," Lyra laughed. "You're the one always getting into trouble..."

"Yeah, but at least our head of house doesn't have a vendetta against my father," Harry teased.

"No, but mine has it out for _both_ our dads..."

That night, after Snape had burst into the hospital wing shouting accusations at the three of them, Hermione, Harry and Lyra sat down in their beds eating chocolate. There was a comfortable silence between the three of them. For at least tonight, they could all let bygones be bygones. None of them wanted to end up as bitter or resentful as Severus Snape... So letting past altercations go came easily.

When Ron finally woke up demanding answers, Hermione and Lyra played scissors, parchment, stone to see who would have to explain the story. Harry had conveniently shoved chocolate in his mouth so he didn't have to... The two girls giggled and squealed until Madame Pomfrey stormed in and told them all to be quiet and head to bed. Whispered promises of explanations in the morning were how Lyra drifted off to sleep.

* * *

_**June 7th, 1994**_

The next morning, Lyra woke to find Tracey sitting beside her bed.

"You are an idiot," Tracey said. She didn't wait for Lyra to rub the sleep out of her eyes before she continued, "Oh," Tracey mocked Lyra with a high voice. "You know what sounds fun? Sneaking out of the castle late at night and nearly getting killed by a werewolf and a mass murderer!"

"Trace..." Lyra laughed. "I'm fine... Really... And besides-"

"No, I'm not finished!" Tracey snapped. "You could have been expelled! You could have died and I would have been left all alone to deal with Daphne and Pansy and stupid Draco Malfoy all on my own. You are _not_ allowed to leave me as the only decent Slytherin. Are we clear?"

The two girls looked at each other for a moment before Tracey flung her arms around Lyra and lay half on top of her. Lyra laughed and wrapped her arms around Tracey.

"You really scared me, Lyra Black," Tracey whispered.

"I really scared me, too, Tracey Davies," Lyra replied. "But I have something to tell you... And you're probably not going to believe it..."

"At this point," Tracey said earnestly, "Nothing would surprise me."

Tracey, unfortunately, was quite wrong. Nothing had prepared her for the story that Lyra had to tell her. In fact, as they wandered the deserted halls of Hogwarts once Madame Pomfrey had released Harry, Hermione, Ron and Lyra, Tracey kept opening and closing her mouth like a fish out of water. She didn't quite understand how it was possible that an accused murderer was really innocent, or that Weasley's pet rat had really been a 33 year old man in disguise.

"You know what doesn't surprise me at all?" Tracey finally managed to say. "That thing about Lupin."

"Really?" Lyra said. "It shocked me..."

"Snape told us all at breakfast," Tracey said as she looped her arm through Lyra's. "Lupin's a werewolf and he's resigned."

"_Resigned_?" Lyra repeated. "I have to see him!"

"You have to-" Tracey didn't get to finish her sentence as Lyra had tore her arm away from Tracey's and was running in the opposite direction.

As Lyra ran towards the office, she found the door open, and two familiar voices speaking. Hesitating in the doorway, she took a breath and decided to listen in before she stepped in.

"I just saw Hagrid," Harry said. "He said you'd quit! Tell me that's not true..."

"Afraid so," Lupin said with a tinge of sadness in his voice. "Come in, Lyra."

Lyra peaked her head into the doorway and gave him a confused look.

"The map," Lupin smiled and pointed to the parchment unfolded on his desk. Lyra walked in avoiding Harry's gaze.

"You're leaving," Lyra said as she stood beside Harry. "You're leaving because of Snape."

"Well, the loss of his Order of Merlin hit him hard," Lupin said with much more understanding than either Harry or Lyra could muster.

"What did Snape do?" Harry turned to Lyra. She sighed and her shoulders hunched down a little as she ran a hand through her hair.

"He told everyone that Lupin was a werewolf over breakfast, or something," Lyra replied. "At least that's what Tracey told me."

"That's fairly accurate," Lupin said with a wry smile. "People won't exactly warm to the idea of a werewolf teaching their children."

Lyra felt nauseous as she leaned back against the wall of his office and listened to him talking. Lupin had handed back the invisibility cloak to Harry and was folding up the parchment on his desk. She figured that the map was going to be handed to Harry as well. Just like the firebolt, the position as seeker on the Gryffindor team, and just about everything else in their time at Hogwarts together, Lyra thought almost bitterly.

"I am no longer your teacher," Lupin was saying, "So I don't feel any guilt about giving you this."

It took her a moment to realize that Lupin was handing Lyra the piece of parchment.

"What?" Lyra said with a smile spreading across her lips. "I get the map?"

"She gets the map?" Harry repeated, clearly as shocked as she was.

"It's of no use to me," Lupin shrugged. "And I daresay it will help you avoid the less than savoury students in your house, Lyra..." As Lyra reached out to take the map, he with held it for a moment and said, "The only condition I have is that you don't use it to torment any Gryffindors."

"I won't, I promise," Lyra said as she took the parchment. It was blank, and she had no idea how she was going to use it or how it worked apart from Harry's vague stories, but it was still the best present she'd received.

"I swear that I am up to mischief," Lyra whispered enthusiastically as she pointed her wand at it. Writing started to spread across the page while Harry snickered, and Lupin smiled kindly.

_Messers Moony, Wormtail, Padfoot and Prongs applaud your attempt. _

_Mr. Padfoot would like to add that he thinks that with a pretty face like yours, you can do better._

"Do better?" Lyra frowned. "I hereby declare that I am up to no good!"

"Should I tell her?" Lupin whispered to Harry. Harry grinned and shook his head.

"Let her keep trying..."

_Mr. Prongs agrees with Mr. Padfoot that the effort is most certainly lacking. _Lyra looked up from the page and scowled at the two people across from her. More writing unfolded on the page. _Mr. Padfoot would like to comment that perhaps, if only your brains were as bright as your eyes..._

"I'm cunning! I'm in Slytherin!" Lyra protested, "Which one of you gits was Padfoot again?" Lyra asked Lupin. _Mr. Moony would like to express his utmost discontent that a Slytherin would dare call a Marauder a git. _"I solemnly swear you are being an idiot," Lyra almost shouted.

_Mr. Wormtail would like to ask how exactly such a stunning specimen ended up sorted into Slytherin._

"I think it's... _Flirting_.."

That was too much. Once Harry had stopped laughing at the ridiculousness of it all, the pair of them were excused from Lupin's classroom. They said their goodbyes and Harry explained the workings of the map to Lyra so that she knew how to keep it protected from anyone else. As they wandered down the hallway, Harry was pulled aside by Professor Dumbledore, and Lyra ducked away. She headed to her dormitory first, to stash the map, and then to the courtyards so she could enjoy the warm day now that exams were over.

As Lyra caught up to Tracey, the two girls sat with their feet dipped in the cool lake off the edge of the docks. Lyra still looked a little scraped up, her hair was knotted from the altercation the night before, but she smiled widely as Tracey leaned her head on her shoulder. A group of Slytherins in their year wandered up to the edge of the docks. Sheepishly, Daphne Greengrass wandered up and sat on Lyra's other side. She too dipped her feet in the lake and smiled apologetically at Lyra.

"Once a snake, always a snake," Daphne offered out a hand for a reconciliation. Lyra reached her hand out and took Daphne's. She shook it, and smiled at the pureblood before she yanked her forward and sent her hurtling into the lake.

Daphne screamed in outrage, but ended up falling out laughing as Tracey and Lyra burst into giggles.

"I can't believe you!" Daphne spluttered as she pushed a handful of wet hair back and out of her eyes. "I was trying to apologize!"

"And now you're forgiven!" Lyra grinned as Tracey gave her a high five. Lyra started to stand up, to help Daphne back onto the dock but quickly found herself being dragged into the icy lake. Once Lyra was in, it was only a matter of time before Tracey too was pulled into the lake by the other two girls.

"I hate _both of you_!" Tracey squealed. "IT'S BLOODY FREEZING!"

With teeth chattering underneath their huge grins, the three girls hauled themselves back up onto the dock and saw the startled, but mostly amused faces of their classmates. Pansy Parkinson, Draco Malfoy and his two henchmen were frowning with their arms crossed.

As Lyra wandered back to the castle, she was surrounded by Daphne, Tracey, Theodore Nott, as well as a few of their other classmates. Blaise had wrapped his sweater around Daphne's shoulders, while Lyra and Tracey's lips turned blue despite their laughing. Everyone was talking all over each other as Lyra was asked questions about her involvement in the events of the night before. As they all collapsed around the Slytherin sofas in the common room, Lyra remembered why it was she had loved her house. Her heart ached a little as she thought of the map sitting locked in her trunk, but she smiled knowing that Buckbeak and Sirius Black were far, far away from the corruption found within wizardkind.

* * *

_**June 20th, 1994**_

_Lyra, _

_I want you to know that Buckbeak and I are safe in hiding. I realize that you are probably much happier with Andromeda and Ted, so I ask only that, once Dumbledore's had a word, you give them both a big hug for me._

_Your mother would be proud of the young woman you've become, even if she'd have scoffed at your house colours a bit first. I'm sure you'll be fine, but in case you think you'll need me, your owl will be able to find me._

_Now, I realize it might have been unfair of me to give Harry a firebolt and you nothing... I do owe you about twelve birthdays worth of gifts, so if you think of anything you'd like send me word. Whether it's a new set of dress robes, or a set of particularly interesting books. _

_I'll write soon._

_Sirius_

* * *

**A/N: Thank you so much for reading! Please leave me a review with your comments, questions, opinions, concerns, constructive criticism! Your input means so much to me! So does your support for the story, my goodness, you guys are the best!**

**xo, Sophie**


End file.
